KEY POINTS:
When New Zealand arrive in Munich for the world rowing championships, expectations will differ from crew to crew.
Take world champion single sculler Mahe Drysdale. Or coxless pair George Bridgewater and Nathan Twaddle. Or Olympic champions, twins Caroline and Georgina Evers-Swindell.
They will rock up and expect to win. They've done it before; they have high personal goals.
But the championships, starting on August 26, have a double edge to them this time, with the regatta being the only chance to qualify boats for the Beijing Olympics next year.
The number of places open for countries vary among the different classes. For example, 11 spots are open in Drysdale's event; so, too, the coxless pair. The Hawkes Bay twins have eight spots on offer.
If any of them just scrape through, however, it will be the equivalent of the All Blacks edging past Romania with a last-minute conversion bouncing over off both uprights at rugby's World Cup in September.
For the women's eight, however, the goalposts are narrower.
They must finish in the top five in Munich. In other words, just making the A final of six boats won't be enough.
It is the toughest of all Olympic classes in that sense. But if the task appears daunting, the rowers - and coach Wayne Maher - are up for the challenge.
Last year - the first time an eight had been sent on the annual overseas campaign since 1999 at St Catherine's, Canada - they finished seventh, winning the B final at the Dorney Lake course in Eton.
"We've got to step up two places this year," says crew member Paula Twining. "It is kind of hard but it's a good challenge and definitely achievable."
Twining, at 25, is the oldest of the crew and she's got form for success on the water. In 2001, she was part of a women's quad - with the Evers-Swindells and Sonia Waddell - who won silver at the worlds in Lucerne.
The eight contains four changes from last year, the newcomers being Fiona Paterson, Emma Feathery, Simone Hudson and Tamsin Gilbert.
The past few weeks have been a time of hard work; of getting to a certain point from which they can push on through the next two World Cup regattas at Amsterdam and Lucerne and be at optimum level at the right time for Munich.
"Our base speed has always been quite good. What we don't have is raw speed, and that's been the focus," Maher said this week after a session on the water at Lake Karapiro.
"We've got a long way to go. We're nowhere near where we need to be to qualify, but the hard material is all there. And we've got enough time between now and September, when we need to do the business."
There's no point griping that their discipline sets a harder target than their squad mates.
That's life. It's all about International Olympic Committee quotas, which allow for 550 athletes, of whom 402 will be decided in Munich, others through Asian, African and Latin American qualifying regattas, and the final 85 at the last-chance saloon - aka the Lucerne regatta - next year.
Last weekend's opening World Cup regatta at Linz, Austria, gave the eight some pointers. A German crew won in 6m 16.81s. China were sixth and last in 6m 22.79s.
"You can't take too much out of it," Twining said. "The conditions are different, the temperature of the water is different, all the little things that add up to different times. The times over there are similar to what we're doing here."
By Maher's judgment, the United States, Olympic and world champions, are at the top of the heap.
Then follow three or four boats he reckons "you could throw a blanket over" followed by a small step back to the next band, which would include New Zealand.
"Anywhere from seven to 10 boats are realistic chances of taking those five spots," he added.
Twining reckons they are physically in pretty good nick. "We're keeping improving, the programme we're on is keeping us building up. We've got to get eight girls rowing the same, get everyone on the catch [hitting the water at the same moment] together."
There's plenty of work ahead but for Twining, who hails from Mercer and is studying biological science, "we've definitely moved up from last year. Munich's always in the back of our minds, but the buildup regattas are important as well," Twining added.
If they miss out in Munich, they have Lucerne as a backstop next year. The last two crews will advance from there to Beijing, but that's the route no one wants to take.
The 10 elite crews, comprising 37 rowers, fly to Europe on June 16.
Women's eight:
Erin Tolhurst (Auckland), Fiona Paterson (Waikato), Paula Twining (Waikato), Nicky Lee Crawford (Wanganui), Rebecca Scown (Wanganui), Emma Feathery (Waikato), Simone Hudson (Otago), Tamsin Gilbert (Bay of Plenty). Cox: Candice Bardsley (Waikato)
Schedule
* June 22-24: World Cup regatta, Amsterdam
* July 13-15: World Cup regatta, Lucerne
* August 26-Sept 2: World championships, Munich
