Rowing: More gold flows NZ's way

The World Cup rowing regatta in Lucerne, Switzerland, turned into a benefit for New Zealanders as they won seven medals, including five golds over the weekend.

It marked a continuation of their small boat form in the previous regatta in Munich, Germany, last month when New Zealand bagged five gold and eight medals in all.

Lightweight single sculler Duncan Grant began New Zealand's gold rush in the A finals on Saturday and he was joined on the winners' podium yesterday by the women's pair, the men's pair, the lightweight double sculls and single sculler Mahe Drysdale.

The women's pair of Emma-Janes Feathery and Rebecca Scown edged out Germany for the gold medal by a little more than one second after posting a time of seven minutes 20.18 seconds for the 2000m journey.

It proved their gold at Munich which had surprised onlookers was no fluke.

"We feel we've moved on since the last regatta," Feathery said.

"It's good to race with new crews so we can see where we're at."

The men's pair of Eric Murray and Hamish Bond achieved the same result by a much more comfortable margin, crossing the finish line in 6min 27.00sec, almost 6sec ahead of their nearest challengers, Great Britain.

"We came out in front already from the first strokes and it was good to do that," Bond said.

"There are no big tricks, we just make sure we make no mistakes. There was a bit of a headwind, just enough to slow you down a bit and the usual Lucerne waves, but it went well."

The men's lightweight doubles scull of Storm Uru and Peter Taylor restored order for New Zealand as they led their race from start to finish.

Uru and Taylor held off a determined Canadian crew to cross the line first in 6min 22.71sec, almost 3sec ahead of Canada, with France third.

Multiple single scull world champion and Olympic medallist Drysdale led the best of his rivals by almost 2sec after 1000m and was never headed.

He was clocked at 6min 50.64sec at the end, close to 3sec in front of Norwegian Olaf Tufte, who collected silver.

Emma Twigg replicated her silver medal from Munich by finishing almost 5sec behind the Czech Republic's Mirka Knapkova in the women's single scull.

The women's quadruple sculls also matched their Munich outcome, Genevieve Armstrong, Louise Trappit, Sarah Barnes and Harriet Austin trailing crews from Germany and the United States.

Grant repeated his success at Munich in a dominant performance, leading from the outset and setting the scene for a strong tilt at the world championships in Poland next month.

The men's double scull of Matthew Trott and Nathan Cohen began their final slowly, passing the 500m marker in fifth place before improving to third at the halfway stage.

But they could not catch Germans Eric Knittel and Stephan Krueger, who won an extremely tight race with a French crew second, while the New Zealanders crossed in fourth place, less than 1sec back. The women's double sculls crew of Anna Reymer and Paula Twining were improved on Munich but finished fifth, more than 6sec down on the winners, Poland.

The New Zealanders' main target is the world championships at Poznan, Poland in six weeks.

They will prepare at a training camp in Aegeri, near Lucerne.

- NZPA