Rowing: Classic final lived up to pre-race billing

Eric Murray (left) and Hamish Bond pulled out the stops in the last couple of strokes to beat their British rivals. Photo / Christine Cornege

So often an event is built up into something it cannot possibly live up to.

But anyone thinking the men's coxless pair final might struggle to match its pre-race billing at the world championships would have been left delighted to have been proved so wrong.

The battle between New Zealanders Eric Murray and Hamish Bond and Peter Reed and Andy Triggs Hodge of Britain was a classic.

The New Zealand pair won by a blink - 6min 30.16s beating 6:30.48 - and thus took to 12 the number of successive victories they have put up against the 2008 coxless four Olympic gold medallists.

But that tells only part of the story of the best race of the regatta.

The Brits had been talking up their chances ahead of the final; Murray and Bond were quietly confident.

It turned out to be a neck-and-neck battle over the 2000m as New Zealand recovered from a sluggish start to duel down the stretch, neither side giving any ground.

New Zealand got up in the last couple of strokes in a race which should live long in world championship memory.

"We've got the experience and it was really good to be able to use our heads, to stay cool," Murray said.

"We're just happy all the work we put in was able to pay off. You put the money in the bank and today was our withdrawal."

The New Zealand pair have been consistently strong for two years and needed every bit of that accumulated wisdom as Reed and Triggs Hodge left nothing in the tank.

"They're an outstanding pair," Reed said of the New Zealanders, who were defending the title won in Poland last year.

"We're an outstanding pair, but outstanding by a little bit less. That hurts to say but we had a cracking run at it."

There was daylight between the British pair and the rest of the field, which was headed home by Greeks Georgios Tziallas and Ioannis Christou, almost 6s behind Britain.

So sights are set firstly on Bled, Slovenia, and the worlds next year, then London and the 2012 Olympics.

"They've had two years to gear up for their home worlds; we've got two years to gear up for our home Olympics," Triggs Hodge said.

"There's a big carrot up there. The fat lady hasn't sung yet. She's due in August 2012."

As for the Kiwis, there's a short break, then back into training for next year.

"There's only nine or 10 months till the world champs so we'll sit down with the master [head coach Richard Tonks] and see what he wants to do," Murray said.

Tonks' other star pupil, Mahe Drysdale, has a silver medal to go with his four single scull golds from world championships, after putting a difficult preparation behind him with a strong performance.

Czech Republic sculler Ondrej Synek had been the star turn all year, winning all three World Cups and the European championships, and he was a worthy victor on Saturday, winning in 6:47.49, a tick less than 2s ahead of Drysdale, with gallant Brit Alan Campbell only .41s behind the New Zealander in third.

"He's been the class man all year. I knew going into the last 500m it was going to be tough. Ondrej deserved that, he rowed an awesome race," Drysdale said.

Drysdale rated it "a pretty good result for me". He is determined to put his back problems behind him next year. "A 2s deficit is not going to be hard to bridge once I'm back in full training."