Rowing: Drysdale confidence a boon for Rio

Mahe Drysdale on the way to winning the single sculls at the World Cup on the Rotsee in Lucerne, Switzerland.

New Zealand dominated the morning session of finals day at the World Cup on the Rotsee, picking up three gold and two silver medals in the Olympic class events.

Single sculler Mahe Drysdale, the men's lightweight four of Curtis Rapley, James Lassche, Alistair Bond and James Hunter, and women's lightweight double scullers Sophie MacKenzie and Julia Edward won gold.

The women's pair of Grace Prendergast and Kerri Gowler and men's quadruple scullers Jade Uru, George Bridgewater, John Storey and Karl Manson took silver.

Those efforts added to the gold and bronze gleaned by Zoe McBride and Adam Ling respectively in the non-Olympic lightweight single sculls on the Saturday.

Six more crews were set to race overnight.

Drysdale produced the most convincing display, winning by 5.3s in a race he described as his "easiest ever World Cup win".

The 36-year-old's domination suggests he is a genuine favourite to defend his Olympic title.

"I couldn't quite believe it. I looked around at 500m and I was in front and feeling good. I thought 'today's my day'. No one put up too much of a battle really. It was a confidence boost going into the world championships. Hopefully I can stay injury free with no bike crashes."

Drysdale had a bespoke black boat, emblazoned with the silver fern, delivered for the occasion.

"It was a one-off. Actually they stuffed up the one they delivered in Varese [at the first World Cup win]," he laughed. "It wasn't very comfortable and they offered to remake it."

The lightweight four confirmed their dominance across two World Cups, despite being pipped by Denmark in the semi-finals yesterday. In the final they also dealt with the crowd cheering on the Swiss locals who took silver.

"The fields are so compressed. It feels like about 10 countries are within a few boat lengths of each other," Lassche said. "But from 1000m out you could feel the momentum was with us, even though we were being pushed."

The lightweight double scullers had retribution on their minds after losing their world best time to Britain at the last World Cup.

"We've had fire in our bellies since," Edward said. "That gave us the confidence for today. Sophie did an amazing job with the calls so we could dominate the race."

Earlier the pair of Prendergast (23) and Gowler (21) earned silver, 2.65s behind British Olympic and world champions Heather Stanning and Helen Glover, but deserved gold stars for moonlighting between the pair and the eight, who also made the final. The selectors' faith in the duo's fitness and tenacity has been justified.

"There were definitely places we can find more speed in the next six-week training block," Prendergast said.

"It's the first time we've done it [doubled up in the eight] so it's exciting. It helped that we avoided a repechage in the eight and avoided two races on Saturday [in addition to the pair semi-final]."

"The younger rowers are reaching the top level a lot faster than when I was a younger athlete," Drysdale said.

"Having the junior and under-23 programmes at Karapiro competing against the best athletes in world has added another level of competition. The fact Zoe [McBride] can set a world best time but is yet to make an Olympic class boat says a lot."