Rowing: Medal haul forces rethink

Four world championship gold medals have forced Rowing New Zealand to rethink its strategic plan through to the Beijing Olympics in 2008.

But it hasn't altered its ambitious bid to get a crew in every final at the 2012 London Olympics, using scientific innovations they have up their sleeves to achieve that.

Rowing NZ high performance manager Andrew Matheson confirmed from Japan last night that the New Zealand Academy of Sport-contracted sports scientists -- including exercise physiologists and biomechanists -- working with the country's elite rowers and coaches were developing a GPS tracking system that would show where the best speed improvements could be made before 2008.

In the meantime, even the most optimistic New Zealand rowing supporters had not counted on four world titles as soon as this year.

Single sculler Mahe Drysdale, men's pair George Bridgewater and Nathan Twaddle, and women's pair Nicky Coles and Juliette Haigh joining Olympic champions Caroline and Georgina Evers-Swindell all graced the winners' dais at Gifu on Saturday.

That made New Zealand the most successful nation at the championships and the first to win four gold medals since East Germany in 1987. The team of 11 all reached finals, with the men's coxless four finishing sixth.

"We're probably a wee bit ahead of where we wanted to be at this stage. We set a target for Beijing of three medals -- two of them gold," Matheson said.

"That plan was written a year ago based on a snapshot of where we were at then and obviously the pragmatic thing now is to rethink just where we are and where we are going."

Matheson said it was always hard to back up such success but they didn't shy away from a challenge.

"It's an awesome challenge and the great thing is that while I was watching our people win those finals on Saturday, I became even more convinced we can work with these athletes through to Beijing. There is room to improve the speed in all of them."

The GPS systems are not new in world sport or rowing with Rowing NZ buying the units secondhand off the Australian Institute of Sport.

But Matheson said an ability to be able to advance the use of the technology, and the scientists working with the coaches in a relatively small team gave New Zealand an advantage.

One of the biggest advantages of the systems was their ability to give coaches real-time data in their coaching boat of what did and did not improve boat speed.

"These medals we have won were won by sheer hard work and this does not take the place of that.

"But in the past our coaches have relied on their eye to tell them what is working and now they will be able to back that up with hard numbers they can get instantly. It's all pretty exciting what we might be able to achieve from this," he said.

- nzpa