Rowing: Kiwi duo retain world title

Kiwis Nathan Cohen and Jospeh Sullivan defended their double sculls world title in dramatic fashion at the Rowing World Championships in Bled, Slovenia tonight.

The pair only led the race on the final stroke as a late surge saw them rein in the German pair of Hans Gruhne and Stephan Krueger.

Cohen and Sullivan covered the 2000 metre course in 6min 10.76sec, only six one hundredths of a second faster than the Germans (6min 10.82sec).

Frenchmen Credric Berrest and Julien Bahain claimed third place in 6min 14.31 sec.

The medal was the fourth of the regatta for New Zealand after Duncan Grant claimed bronze in the men's lightweight single sculls final only minutes before.

The three-time world champion led at the halfway stage of 1000m, but Denmark's Henrik Stephansen produced a dominant back end of the race to finish first in 6min 54.73sec.

Italian Pietro Ruta claimed silver in 7min 1.55sec, while Grant held off American Andrew Campbell Jr (7min 6.64sec) who came fourth.

Earlier, single sculler Mahe Drysdale produced a dominant performance to win his semifinal.

It was perhaps an important pyschological victory for Drysdale (6min 51.52sec), who finished the 2km course ahead of Norwegian two-time Olympic champion Olaf Tufte (6min 52.29sec).

Drysdale led from the 1000 metre mark, while Tufte was slow to get in to his work but came home in flying fashion to overhaul Liang Zhang of China and Lassi Karonen (Sweden) who held on for third place.

Drysdale, Tufte and Karonen will be joined in Saturday's final by Great Britain's Alan Campbell, Czech Republic rower Ondrej Synek and German Marcel Hacker.

Campbell was the fastest qualifier from the respective semifinals in 6min 50sec.

Women's double sculls pair Anna Reymer and Fiona Paterson stroked their way to the A final with a second-place finish in their semifinal.

The Kiwis trailed Great Britain 6min 59.72sec by two seconds as they finished in 7min 1.52sec, ahead of the Czech Republic (7min 3.69sec).

They will be joined in Saturday's final by Australia, who registered the fastest qualifying time of 6min 57.27sec, Ukraine and Poland, who all made it through the earlier semifinal.

Defending world champions Eric Murray and Hamish Bond sent a message to their British rivals as they won their men's coxless pair semifinal in a quicker time.

The Kiwis cruised to victory in their semi in 6min 28.65sec, ahead of the Great Britain unit who clocked 6min 31.66sec for the 2km race in the earlier semifinal.

Bond and Murray were barely challenged throughout the race and eased ahead of the Italian crew, who finished second in 6min 34.42sec.

Greece (6min 34.73sec) claimed third place in the second semifinal to join earlier qualifiers Great Britain, Canada and Germany alongside New Zealand and Italy in Saturday's final.

New Zealand's men's quadruple sculls crew missed out on the A final at the Rowing World Championships by eight one hundredths of a second as they finished fourth in their semifinal.

The quartet, made up of Steve Cottle, Robbie Manson, Matthew Trott and John Storey flew home in the final 500 metres of the 2km race, but couldn't overhaul the Italian boat that finished in 5min 51.34sec.

New Zealand, who finished in 5min 51.42sec, were fifth at the 1500 metre mark, behind Cuba, Italy, Australia and eventual winners Germany, but found their stride as the race went on.

Germany were the fastest qualifiers from the semifinals in a time of 5min 46sec and will be joined in the final on Saturday by Australia, Italy, Croatia, Russia and Poland.

Croatia won the first semifinal in 5min 45 sec, followed by Russia (5 min 47.31sec), then Poland (5min 47.41sec).

Danny McBride qualified for next year's Paralympics in London with a second-place finish in the B final of the men's adaptive single sculls final.

Last year's bronze medallist had only narrowly missed out on the A final and powered through the 1000m course in 5min 21.01sec, two seconds behind winner Jie Yang (5min 19.32sec) from China.

The top two finishers from the race qualified for London and McBride was in second spot at the halfway point and while he made up a second on Yang, he couldn't haul him in.

Brazil's Luciano Luna de Oliveira finished a further four seconds behind McBride in 5min 25.62sec to claim third place.