Rowing: Drysdale takes fourth straight world title

Mahe Drysdale put to rest the ghosts of his Beijing Olympics disappointment when he won his fourth consecutive world single sculls title in Posnan, Poland last night.

It was New Zealand's second gold medal of the day after of Hamish Bond and Eric Murray won the final of the men's coxless pairs.

Drysdale, third at the Olympics, held off a stiff challenge from Britain's Alan Campbell with both rowers going at it hammer and tongs for most of the 2000m final held in good conditions.

Campbell took the lead from the start of the race but Drysdale flowed into his rhythm after pushing past the Briton.

The giant New Zealander's endurance tipped the balance in his favour as he upped his stroke rate to build a lead of 3/4 after 1400m from 2/100ths of a second at the halfway mark.

With 200m to go, he was a whole boat ahead of the pursuing Briton.

Campbell, by then his only credible challenger left, launched a final burst with 150m to go but by then Drysdale had the race under control.

Drysdale clocked six minutes, 33.35 seconds with Campbell second in 6min34.30sec. Third was Ondrej Synek of the Czech Republic in 6min 38.53sec.

The New Zealand men's pair of Hamish Bond and Eric Murray joined an elite club of world rowing champions in two different boats today.

They blitzed their opponents to win the men's coxless pairs gold at the world championships in Poznan, Poland, just a few minutes after the women's pair of Rebecca Scown and Emma Feathery claimed the women's coxless pairs bronze.

New Zealand's other finalists, Emma Twigg and double scullers Matthew Cohen and Nathan Trott had to be content with fourth in their respective events.

Bond and Murray now are double world champions, having being part of New Zealand's triumphant men's four two years ago.

They were heavily favoured going into the race and left their competition in no doubt as they jumped out to a commanding lead after just 500m.

"We just flew out at the start," Bond said.

"We gave it everything in that first 500 and took that length."

The burden of expectations was not something Bond and Murray were used to in the four. But unbeaten going into this final, they were well aware they were marked men.

It was clearly something that played on the mind with the look of relief written across their faces as they came off the water.

"It's a weight off my shoulders," Bond said.

"I've been stressing the last few days. It was a new thing for us going in as favourites."

The British pair of Andrew Triggs Hodge and Peter Reed was expected to be their great threat and that was the case as they pursued the New Zealanders down the course.

However they never had the boat speed as Bond and Murray romped away to win in 6min 15.93 seconds, just over a second outside the world record.

"There were times throughout the season when I thinking, this better be worth it because, man, it sucks right now," Bond added.

" We did some really hard training with (coach) Dick (Tonks) this year but it's all worth it now."

Bond and Murray now take aim at world domination in the lead up to the 2012 London Olympics.

"It vaults us up the standings as far as New Zealand's rowers are concerned.

" We're in a position now in world rowing as people to respect."

Scown and Feathery got New Zealand's medal chase underway with their bronze.

They were slow off the start and had to come from fifth to sneak onto the podium.

The United States pair of Zsusanna Francia and Erin Cafaro won gold with Romania second.

The United States clocked seven minutes 06.28 seconds, the Romanian 7min 06.64sec and the New Zealanders 7min 06.94sec.

"It's bittersweet really," Feathery said.

"It's not what we wanted.

"But our first year together has definitely given us a whole lot to go home and work on and there will be plenty of fire in the belly now after that."

Matthew Cohen and Nathan Trott struggled to keep pace in the final of the men's double sculls coming home in fourth in a time of 6min 08.87.

Germany's Eric Knittel and Stephen Krueger overpowered the field to win in 6min 07.02sec with France second in 6min 07.82 and Estonia third in 6min 07.86.

Twigg, fifth for most of her race, but her steady pace saw her overtake China's Xiuyun Zhang, who had led at the halfway mark, for fourth in the final 150 metres.

The race was won by Belarus' Ekaterina Karsten-Khodotovich in 7min 11.78sec with Britain's Katherin Grainger second and Czech Republic's Mirka Knapkova third.

Adaptive rower Robin Tinga was the first New Zealander in finals action.

However he found the pace too hot in his medal race and crossed the line fifth.

Tinga was in the bronze medal position at the 500m halfway stage but slowed as the line approached.

Britain's Tom Aggar won the final, finishing 25 seconds ahead of Tinga.

- NZPA