KEY POINTS:
Invercargill's Nathan Cohen has struck the first blow in his growing rivalry with world rowing champion Mahe Drysdale.
Cohen and Matthew Trott scored an emphatic victory over Drysdale and accomplished partner, Nathan Twaddle, in the final of the national men's championship double sculls on Lake Ruataniwha near Twizel today.
Cohen and crew mate Trott took the race on from the first stroke and were never headed, beating a world-class field in a time of six minutes, 22.9 seconds.
They were six seconds clear of the field to give Cohen his first red coat.
Cohen and Trott sprinted out to an early lead which they extended to over three lengths by halfway.
They still looked nimble and lively as they crossed the line comfortably ahead.
"We had a pretty awesome start and really just kept pulling away," said Cohen, who now looks forward to more clashes with Drysdale in both the single sculls and quadruple sculls finals tomorrow.
"We didn't need to do much when we got ahead, but I wasn't sure we were safe until we had about 800 metres to go."
Double world singles champion Drysdale and Twaddle, who rowed hard to win the coxless pairs final in the morning, blamed an average row rather than fatigue for their fourth place.
"We just never got it going as well as in the coxless pairs unfortunately," Twaddle said.
Two years ago, Cohen almost beat Drysdale in the final of the single sculls at Ruataniwha and he has chased him throughout this season at regattas and in training.
He was a finalist in the emerging talent category at the recent Halberg awards and was a silver medallist in the under-23 world championships last year, despite still being only 20 years old.
Trott has been a member of the New Zealand team for the past 12 months. He won the quadruple sculls in 2004 but also has red coats from victory in the eights and coxed fours.
Olympic champions Caroline and Georgina Evers-Swindell won the women's double sculls final today, dominating a poorly supported event.
There was plenty of support for Central RPC's Rosslyn Knox and Simone Hudson and the Bay of Plenty composite of Genevieve Armstrong and Trudy Stuart for having the courage to take them on and make sure there was a race.
In the coxless pairs, Drysdale and Twaddle had to work hard to take their first title of the championships.
The pair were only third at the 500m mark behind the Southern RPC's Hamish Bond and Carl Meyer and the fast-starting Waikato crew of Eric Murray and James Dallinger.
With 500m to go, Drysdale and Twaddle came under fearsome pressure as Bond raised the rate continually in pursuit.
There was only a metre or so between them as they crossed the line, but the verdict went to Auckland RPC.
"It was a close race and a tough one, but that's what people want and it's always enjoyable to win one like that," said Twaddle.
- NZPA
