Rowing: Drysdale earns solid win

Mahe Drysdale began his world championship single scull campaign as he means to finish it.

His win in the Munich World Cup regatta on Sunday night was one of five gold medals the New Zealand squad collected just a few days after stepping off the plane.

The world champs are in Poznan, Poland in the final week of August. Munich provided the ideal start.

Drysdale, winner of the last three world single scull titles and bronze medallist in the Beijing Olympics last year, took charge at halfway in his final, easing clear of good mate, Briton Alan Campbell, to win in 7 minutes 00.45 seconds, with Olympic champion Olaf Tufte of Norway third.

"I am feeling really good and feeling very confident to go into the next nine weeks ... there is a lot of racing coming up and this was a good way to start," Drysdale said.

But perhaps the most eye-catching of the five New Zealand victories came from new women's coxless pair combinations Emma Feathery and Rebecca Scown.

Inheriting the seats of 2005 world champions Juliette Haigh and Nicky Coles, the pair led all the way to beat Chinese and German combinations, clocking 7m 24.58s.

"It was a very good opportunity to submit our combination here," Feathery said yesterday.

"As things have been going good at home, the challenge was now to appear in an international competition and we are very happy about the result."

Other golds went to men's coxless pair Hamish Bond and Eric Murray, lightweight double scullers Storm Uru and Peter Taylor, and lightweight single sculler Duncan Grant.

The New Zealand squad next head to the Henley regatta in England, starting on July 1, followed by the third World Cup regatta in Lucerne from July 10-12, before the world championships.