Rowing: Kiwis notch up their own golden hour

Athletic legends Peter Snell and Sir Murray Halberg finally have company, 45 years on.

New Zealand's sports lovers of a certain age have long wallowed in misty-eyed nostalgia of athletics' golden hour. That was the length of time it took for Snell and Halberg to win the Rome Olympics 800m and 5000m finals.

There have been other momentous sporting achievements in a tight time frame - notably the single-minded canoeists on Lake Casitas at the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles. Four golds, two apiece on successive days.

But Snell and Halberg remained supreme purely in terms of that time frame. Time was on their side.

No more. Rowing has seen to that. Between 3.30pm and 4.15pm on Saturday, New Zealand rowers set off in four successive world championship finals, and won the lot. Four national anthems. Four resounding gongs with a message. Each reinforced the one preceding it. The message was unambiguous: New Zealand are on track for the Beijing Olympics. Last year, our rowers made five finals in Athens. But only Caroline and Georgina Evers-Swindell grabbed a medal, gold in the double scull. The next step was more medals.

But even the most optimistic of the rowing contingent would have been hard-pressed to suggest four of this hue. Head coach Dick Tonks' mantra was carried out: Start strong. Stay strong.

It's three years away, but Beijing beckons.