KEY POINTS:
These are good times for New Zealand rowing. At the most visible level, they are toasting Mahe Drysdale's winning the Halberg supreme award this week for collecting his second consecutive world single sculls title.
But dig a little deeper and there is a growing belief that a second tier of New Zealand rowers is ready to ensure the momentum established by the likes of Rob Waddell, Georgina and Caroline Evers-Swindell, Drysdale and Nathan Twaddle and George Bridgewater in recent years.
The results from last year's world junior and under-23 champs are rated the best New Zealand has achieved.
There was a gold in the men's eight and a silver in the women's quad scull at the junior champs in Amsterdam.
At the under-23 regatta in Hazewinkel, Belgium, three golds were picked up by lightweight single sculler Storm Uru, lightweight double Graham Oberlin-Brown and Peter Taylor and the coxed four, while Nathan Cohen won silver in the single sculls.
Next week's national champs at Lake Ruataniwha in Twizel will give another indicator of progress.
"All summer the squad has tracked on the best they have of any summer," Rowing New Zealand high performance boss Andrew Matheson said yesterday.
"There's obviously hurdles to go for the athletes at that age, but as a sport we've got to feel pretty comfortable that we've got some really good talent coming through - not complacent, but comfortable."
Take Cohen. The 21-year-old from Invercargill has been burning up the water over summer and is tipped for a big future. To go with his world silver, Cohen won the World University Games and Commonwealth regatta golds in the single seat.
He knows he's got a head start by being able to train alongside Drysdale, and the word is he's pushing the world's greatest hard.
"I couldn't have anyone better to train against," Cohen said yesterday. "I'm very fortunate. I've learned a lot from Mahe."
Cohen's earliest rowing memory is watching his idol, Rob Waddell, win gold in the Sydney Olympics in 2000. And with Drysdale shaping as the early favourite for the Beijing Olympic title next year, the ambition is obvious for Cohen.
He likes the single seat for the reliance it places on himself: "You almost create your own destiny. It's down to you in that seven minutes".
A women's elite eight finished seventh in the world champs at Eton last year, which was a notable achievement. Emma Twigg was part of that. In 2005 she marked herself as one to watch by winning the single scull junior world title in Germany. Perhaps just as significantly, she was fourth in the under-23 world final at 18.
The former head prefect of Napier Girls' High is another impressing rowing's powers. Her role models have been on her back doorstep. The Olympic champions and three-time world champions the Evers-Swindell twins are also from Hawkes Bay.
"I've always looked up to them," Twigg said. "They're amazing and it's awesome to get the opportunity to train alongside them. There's not many sports you can train with the elite athletes while you're still a junior."
Twigg acknowledged that there is a gifted group of rowers in that 20-22 age bracket. Beijing beckons and she's keen to have a crack at the single scull. Training alongside the Evers-Swindells, who are among the leading solo rowers when they get out of their double, can't hurt that ambition.
For Twigg and Cohen and the rest of their peers, the nationals will be important. Even more so will be the national trials at Lake Karapiro early next month. From there, the squads for Europe will be chosen.
And Europe is where countries will start the Olympic qualifying process, at the world champs in Munich in August.
"Beijing is definitely a goal everybody in the summer squad will have in the back of their minds," Twigg said.
There's plenty of water to churn before then. But all the signs suggest New Zealand rowing is in good, young hands.
Coming Up
* National champs run from next Tuesday to Saturday at Lake Ruataniwha, Twizel.
* Squads reassemble for training on February 27 at Lake Karapiro.
* National trials run at Karapiro from March 2-8, with New Zealand squads for Europe named on March 8.
