Rowing: Dead heat drama ends in disappointment

High drama involving the New Zealand men's coxless four at the world rowing championships at Eton, near London, ended in disappointment today.

A very slow start in their semi-finals race cost the New Zealand men's four of Eric Murray, Selwyn Cleland, Carl Meyer and Hamish Bond an 'A' finals berth.

They worked their way through the field from last position after 500m to join the three leaders - the Netherlands, United States and France - with 100m to go.

In a photo finish, the camera lens determined a dead heat for third place between New Zealand and the United States.

The Fisa world championship competition rules require dead heat results to re-row the 2000m course within two hours of the determination.

The dead heat was confirmed despite a United States protest to review the finish photo, and a re-row was ordered.

Both New Zealand and the United States appealed to the Fisa executive committee to run a seven-boat final, but Fisa said its rules clearly state that a re-row was necessary.

New Zealand and the United States crews took to the water later in the day, but on this occasion the Americans were too clinical for the Kiwi four and won by three-quarters of a boat length.

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Apart from the drama involving the coxless four, it was a most successful day for New Zealand rowing, with six crews set to contest 'A' finals this weekend.

Women's double scullers Caroline and Georgina Evers-Swindell look set for their fourth world title when then beat their nearest rivals, Australians Liz Kell and Brooke Pratley, by half a boat-length to win their semifinal.

Men's pair Nathan Twaddle and George Bridgewater also won their semifinal, as did singles sculler Mahe Drysdale.

Twaddle and Bridgewater clocked 6min 19.51sec over the 2000km race and Drysdale, 27, stopped the clock in 6min 42.58sec after pacing himself alongside German Marcell Hacker then slipping past him in the last 100m.

Hacker was second in 6min 43.87sec.

Drysdale's pre-race chiefs rivals Olaf Tufte (Norway) and Alan Campbell (Great Britain) were in the other semifinal but they were beaten by Czech Republic's Ondrej Synek, who clocked 6min 45.12sec

Lightweight single sculler Grant Duncan also qualified for the final after finishing third in his semifinal, as did women's pair Nicky Coles and Juliette Haigh earlier in the week.

The women's eight Erin Tolhurst, Clementine Marshall, Paula Twining, Emma Twigg, Rebecca Scown, Nikki-Lee Crawford, Bess Halley, Darnelle Timbs and cox Candice Bardsley failed in their bid for the final via the repechage.

Twaddle and Bridgewater followed the Chinese crew closely up to the 1000m mark and then opened up a comfortable lead to win easily.

The Evers-Swindell twins, their usual steady self, followed China over the 100m mark but were in command of the race by the 500m.

- NZPA