Rowing: NZ poised for medal haul at Worlds

The British trait of talking about the weather seems to have rubbed off on the New Zealand rowers competing in the world championships at Eton in England.

Choppy, tricky and tough is how the Evers-Swindell twins described their semifinal win, which looks to have set them up for gold in tomorrow's final.

Qualifying brought the robustness out in the New Zealand crews, with favourites for gold Georgina and Caroline Evers-Swindell and single sculler Mahe Drysdale beating the waves and taking advantage of a gusty backwind.

Caroline said they struggled in the demanding conditions.

"It was definitely not comfortable. We've never been confident rowing in pretty choppy conditions. We never really got it together but we'll take the win.

"The final will be a bunfight - championship finals always are - but we're looking forward to it.

"It was tricky in those sorts of conditions. Technically it's harder to try and get things right."

Drysdale and team manager John Howard agreed that training in difficult New Zealand conditions had helped the Kiwis on the day.

"We train in all conditions. I don't necessarily like it rough but I know how to deal with it better than the Europeans -- they don't train as much in the rough as we do at home," Drysdale said.

Howard said the tricky conditions provided a definite advantage for the New Zealanders.

"There was a direct tail wind which was the same for everyone but it was a bit choppy. That's a slight advantage for us. The more competition we have to feel more comfortable in this environment the better."

Lightweight sculler Duncan Grant produced an impressive performance behind outstanding Briton Zac Purchase and Greece's Ellias Pappa to finish third in his semifinal and become the third New Zealand finalist.

Grant, a late addition to the team, had a slow start , but pushed through the middle 1000m to move into third position, which he maintained comfortably to the line.

As expected, two-time world champion and current world best time holder, Marcel Hacker of Germany, opened up an early lead over world champion single sculler Mahe Drysdale.

Hacker showed Drysdale all his cards to hold onto a one length lead at the halfway mark, but by 1500m Drysdale had pushed level.

Hacker then caught a half crab with 250m to go, allowing Drysdale to comfortably qualify for tomorrow's final in the fastest semifinal time of 6 minutes 42 seconds.

Ondrej Synek (Czech Republic) and Olaf Tufte (Norway) will be his greatest threat to winning back-to-back world championships.

Synek was in impressive form to win his semifinal in 6min 45secs, but the cagey Tufte measured his qualification perfectly.

New Zealand's reigning world pair champions, George Bridgewater and Nathan Twaddle, seeded in the favoured middle lane, quickly clawed back the fast lead China crew held after 250m.

The New Zealand combination held onto their length lead through the middle 1000m and then pushed a further half length ahead of China and a tiring combination from Germany.

With 100m to go, Bridgewater and Twaddle easily handled the pace to qualify for the finals.

The Australian combination of Drew Ginn and Duncan Free were again impressive in winning the other men's pair semifinal, but were three seconds slower than Bridgewater and Twaddle.

Four times world championship winners and Olympic champions Georgina and Caroline Evers-Swindell showed their experience in handling the challenging conditions better than their opposition.

Young combinations from China and Australia tested the New Zealanders through the first 500m before the Chinese fell off the pace.

The Australian pair of Liz Kelly and Brooke Pratley pushed the twins through the final 500m, but the New Zealanders won comfortably in the fastest qualifying time of 6min 50secs.

In the other women's double semifinal, two very strong combinations from Belarus (finishing time 6min 54secs) and Germany (finishing time 6min 56secs) will present serious opposition to the Evers-Swindell twins in Saturday's final.

New Zealand will now contest six 'A' finals.

Finals will be raced tomorrow (men's single, pair and four; men's lightweight single; women's pair and double) and Sunday (men's coxed four).

Overcast conditions with a strong tail wind greeted the rowers at Dorney Lake today in a programme which included the men's single, pair and lightweight men's single races as well as the women's double and eight.

Due to the postponement of the women's eight yesterday, the young New Zealand crew of Erin Tolhurst, Clementine Marshall, Paula Twining, Emma Twigg, Rebecca Scown, Nikki-Lee Crawford, Bess Halley, Darnelle Timbs and coxswain Candice Bardsley lined up in the first race of the day.

Up against the strong Romanian and Chinese crews, the New Zealanders were confronted with a huge challenge to secure one of the two final spots up for grabs.

The Chinese bounced out from the start and gained a half length lead over Romania, with New Zealand and Belarus a further quarter length adrift at the 500m mark. Romania moved at 750m but the Chinese responded with New Zealand dropping back a length.

The Chinese led through the 1500m, with Romania half a length back and the never-say-die Kiwis a full length down on Romania.

The final 250m sprint was to no avail as New Zealand finished in the non-qualifying third position, one length behind China and only half a length behind Romania.

It marked a major improvement by the eight, which two months ago finished a distant fifth behind Romania at the Lucerne World Cup.

- NZPA