Rowing: Drysdale powers into semis

Multiple world champion single sculler Mahe Drysdale laid down his marker as the fastest heats qualifier at the World Cup rowing regatta at Lucerne, Switzerland, today.

The New Zealander flexed his muscle at the third and final Cup regatta of the season after missing the first two rounds due to a back injury.

He reappeared at international level only last week when he won his event at the Henley Royal regatta in England, and again made light of his reduced training schedule today to post the fastest time among the six heats.

Drysdale registered a time of seven minutes 1.47 seconds, which he then bettered when also winning his quarterfinal in 7min 1.24sec.

The best quarterfinal time went to Ondrej Synek, of the Czech Republic, with 6min 59.66sec, while Briton Alan Campbell recorded 7min 00.16sec and Belgium's Tim Maeyens 7min 01.88sec in winning their quarterfinals.

The New Zealand men's pair of Eric Murray and Hamish Bond put themselves in line to score a World Cup hat-trick as they cruised into their semifinals.

Murray and Bond won the first two rounds at Bled, Slovenia and Munich, Germany, and have been unbeaten so far in Europe having also won last week at Henley.

The men's lightweight singles sculler Duncan Grant and the women's pair of Juliette Haigh and Rebecca Scown led from start to finish in their heats.

Haigh and Scown advanced direct to tomorrow's semifinals while Grant also advanced after finishing second in his quarterfinal.

Gaining direct entry into the semifinals after winning their heats were the lightweight men's double of Storm Uru and Peter Taylor and the men's four of Chris Harris, Tyson Williams, Ian Seymour and Ben Hammond.

In the men's doubles, Joseph Sullivan and Nathan Cohen won their heat then and repeated the placing in the quarterfinal when they were more than 3sec quicker than the second-placed Czech Republic crew.

The men's quad of Matthew Trott, Nathan Twaddle, Paul Gerritsen and John Storey also safely negotiated their way into the semifinals by finishing second in their heat behind the Belarussian crew, who passed them only in the final few metres.

Harriet Austin excelled in just her second appearance in the single sculls at international level, reaching the semifinals on the back of a strong performance when she chased former British world champion Debbie Flood home to finish second in her quarterfinal.

- NZPA