Rowing: Can the golden twins bounce back?

In the wake of another hugely successful rowing world championships for New Zealand, one blaring question has emerged.

Is the reign of the sport's most famous twins at an end?

While Mahe Drysdale provided a classic golden moment to win the men's single sculls at Eton Dorney near London on Saturday, perhaps a greater talking point was the bronze medal secured by women's double scullers Caroline and Georgina Evers-Swindell.

It was one of six medals won in New Zealand's most prolific medal haul at a world championships yet has raised the spectre that the invincible cloak the Waikato sisters have worn for five years may be vanishing.

Chasing a fourth straight world title, the Olympic champions failed to dominate yesterday's final, ceding the early advantage to Australian winners Liz Kell and Brooke Pratley.

Germans Britta Oppelt and Susanne Schmidt also stormed past them at the finish for silver.

The 27-year-olds suggested the result had not deterred their drive for success and a debrief would begin once they returned home to Cambridge.

"We want to clean the slate," Georgina said.

"Go home, have a break, have a talk to (coach) Richard (Tonks) and bounce back, hopefully.

"We've had a good few years but it was not our day today. That's sport and that's life. We're going to spend the next few weeks getting over it."

Their result summed up the greater challenge New Zealand faced this week than at Gifu, Japan, last year when crews in black singlets won four golds.

This time men's pair George Bridgewater and Nathan Twaddle, and women's pair Nicky Coles and Juliette Haigh had to settle for a silver downgrade.

Lightweight men's single sculler Duncan Grant joined the twins in snaring a bronze as did the men's coxed four who gave the medal tally a late boost overnight (NZ time).

The crew of Dane Boswell, Paul Gerritsen, James Dallinger, Steven Cottle and cox Daniel Quigley led at the 500m and 1000m marks, and were second at 1500m before Germany powered home to win by nearly a second from Canada in silver and New Zealand another second back at the Eton Dorney course near London.

The six medals were still an outstanding return for New Zealand, highlighting their increased depth at the elite level.

Drysdale's epic comeback was an undoubted highlight, hauling in Marcel Hacker in the final two strokes and breaking the German's world record time in the process with a six minutes 35.40 seconds downwind triumph.

"I like to be in control and I was never in control in that race," Drysdale said.

"I was starting to think it may not work out there. It wasn't the greatest way to win it -- it was my toughest race so far."

Drysdale's effort emulated Rob Waddell's 1998 and 1999 world titles and now he wants to push on and match Waddell's Olympic gold.

"Beijing is my big goal. This is great but I need to have Olympic gold in Beijing -- that will mean everything for me."

Defending women's pairs champions Haigh and Coles were happy with silver this time round after a poor season.

Canadians Darcy Marquardt and Jane Rumball won by 2.04 seconds despite Haigh and Coles' late charge, spurred on by the noisy travelling New Zealand crowd.

Men's pair Twaddle and Bridgewater also failed to match last year's efforts despite a last surge that saw them make up most of a near four-second deficit on Australian pair Drew Ginn and Duncan Free after 1500m.

"We couldn't do much more," Bridgewater said.

"We came back at the end but it wasn't enough -- they'd done so much through the middle. They're a crack combination and they handled the water pretty well.

Lightweight single sculler Duncan Grant bagged a surprise bronze in his event.

Late inclusion Grant said: "I hope I'm keeping my head against the storm because I'm looking to be in the double for Beijing and then come back here for the 2012 Olympics."

- NZPA