Rowing: Gold for NZ junior eight

The New Zealand rowing eight beat Germany to win gold at the world junior rowing championships at Amsterdam overnight (NZ time).

The Brett Crowe-coached NZ eight held their composure after Germany set a blistering pace at the start.

David Eade stroked his crew along at a steady rate of 38 strokes a minute through the middle 1000m to slide past the Germans by a canvas.

With 500m to go, the eight cheered on by a large gallery of New Zealanders, jumped to a boat length lead over Germany and Italy.

At the line the New Zealanders -- Eade, Jared Pehi, Josiah Lester, Sam O'Connor, Tyler Sherman, Michael Arms, Ben Lynton, James O'Connor and coxswain Robert Salveson -- were rating 42 strokes a minute.

The New Zealand junior women's quadruple sculls were not so fortunate.

Anna Stantial, Laura Fischer, Genevieve Armstrong, and Kate Reymer arrived at the course knowing only Germany lay in their way to picking up the gold medal -- and so it proved again.

But the courageous New Zealanders stuck to their task and fought off fast-finishing Austrians to win the silver medal.

A slow start proved to be the undoing of the New Zealand women's four of Rachel Arbuckle, Georgie Baker, Jessica Loe and Harriet Austin who finished behind Germany, Italy, Great Britain and Belarus.

- NZPA