Rowing: Grant recovers for world championships bronze

New Zealand's Duncan Grant made a brilliant recovery to win a lightweight single sculls bronze medal at the world rowing championships in England today.

Grant ran into trouble with the buoys on the left side of his sixth lane in the opening strokes of the race on the Eton Dorney course.

He dropped quickly to sixth and last but had righted his boat by the 500m mark to be fourth.

The sculler from Blenheim's Wairau club, who was a late inclusion in the New Zealand team, moved quickly past Elias Pappas of Greece but couldn't haul in British winner Zac Purchase or Spanish silver medallist Guimerai Zunzunegui.

Purchase, 20, won host Great Britain's first gold of the championships in a world best time of six minutes 47.82 seconds, more than 2sec clear of the Spaniard.

Grant, who qualified fourth fastest for the final, clocked an impressive 6min 52.73sec.

The other four New Zealand crews to race finals today all won gold medals in their respective events at the world championships in Japan last year.

They are, in order tonight, men's single sculler Mahe Drysdale, women's pair Juliette Haigh and Nicky Coles, men's pair Nathan Twaddle and George Bridgewater and women's double scullers Caroline and Georgina Evers-Swindell.

The men's coxed four of Dane Boswell, Paul Gerritsen, James Dallinger, Steven Cottle and cox Daniel Quigley were to contest their final tomorrow.

Earlier today the men's coxless four of Eric Murray, Selwyn Cleland, Carl Meyer and Hamish Bond finished third in their B-final in a time of five minutes 54.98 seconds.

- NZPA