Rowing: Murray and Bond extend run

Eric Murray and Hamish Bond's rivals could only sit and watch as the New Zealand pair continued their remarkable dominance at the prestigious Henley Regatta in London today.

Murray and Bond recorded their ninth consecutive victory over British pair Andy Triggs-Hodge and Pete Reed - the Beijing Olympic gold medallists - to win the Silver Goblets in the premier match racing event.

"It seemed over five strokes everything changed," Triggs-Hodge told the BBC.

"I could see we were matching them stroke for stroke and then suddenly everything went `bang' and I saw them disappear."

The New Zealanders trailed early on, but turned on the power to record a decisive 15 second victory.

They will look to make it 10 straight against their British rivals at this weekend's World Cup round in Lucerne.

There was more good news for New Zealand's rowing team when Mahe Drysdale shook off a back injury to win the Diamond Sculls title for a second consecutive year.

In a stiff headwind, four-time world champion Drysdale edged away from Sweden's top sculler Lassi Karonen for a three boatlength margin.

Drysdale admitted he'd only been training at around 50 per cent in the leadup, so the result was all the more satisfying ahead of the Lucerne regatta.

New Zealand's two other finalists, the men's eight and the women's quad, were beaten in their respective finals.

The eight stayed with the German world champions for half of the course before fading slightly to a two-length defeat, while the women's quad crew were no match for the powerful British crew.

- NZPA