Rowing: NZ sitting pretty for Karapiro

Eric Murray, who won gold at Poznan in the coxless pair, is greeted by wife Jackie on his return. Photo / Brett Phibbs

Among those who took pride in New Zealand's outstanding medal haul at last weekend's world rowing championships are some with a special interest in the sport over the coming 12 months.

At Rowing New Zealand's headquarters on the edge of Lake Karapiro, near Cambridge, wheels are spinning as major renovations take place.

The world championships begin at Karapiro on October 31 next year.

It's one thing to run a world event and have the host country no more than an average competitor in the sport; quite another to be among the powerhouses.

So the four golds and one bronze medal won by New Zealand at Lake Malta in Poznan, Poland did more than reinforce the country's standing; it upped the ante in terms of making it a regatta to savour in our own backyard (the first time since 1978 it has been held in New Zealand) both in terms of on-the-water achievement but also as a top class piece of sporting organisation.

Tom Mayo, chief executive of the 2010 Karapiro organising committee, appreciates the stakes are high.

"We know it's going to be an event that's valued and I've noticed the organising team suddenly taking a lot more pride in it, as you do.

"It's going to matter to New Zealand and personally and professionally it will mean a lot to us. We know the support is there from New Zealand to turn up and see Kiwis win on home soil."

No pressure, then.

But maintaining standards is what has spurred RNZ's elite performers in recent years. This, however, will be different. Home expectations will be high; pressures can affect athletes in different ways. Competing around the other side of the globe, for many athletes across diverse sports, is far preferable. Out of sight, and all that.

But next year will be the time for the country's best rowers and scullers to show, first hand, what all the fuss around this time every year is about.

Since the Athens Olympics of 2004, when Caroline and Georgina Evers-Swindell won New Zealand's only rowing gold, the medals have flowed.

The world championships in Gifu, Japan in 2005 brought the celebrated four golds in 45 minutes; Eton the following year produced six medals, with Mahe Drysdale the only champion; Munich in 2007 garnered five medals, including three gold.

At the past four world champs New Zealand have won 20 medals - 12 gold, four silver and four bronze. And anyone who assumes that other larger, mainly European countries still hold sway in the medal department, think again.

No country won more golds than New Zealand in Poznan, either using the Olympic events category or the all-finals method. Germany matched New Zealand. Poland, United States and Italy were next.

How to compare New Zealand's performance with the other recent seasons. Gifu's four straight golds might never be repeated, but the evidence is there that New Zealand have shown the ability to maintain the highest standards.

The Evers-Swindells have gone; so too former world champions Juliette Haigh and Nicky Coles, and George Bridgewater and Nathan Twaddle, but the medals keep rolling in.

Haigh and Coles' seats have gone to one of the surprise crews of the year, Emma Feathery and Rebecca Scown, who were put together at the start of the year, and went on to win World Cup regattas in Munich and Lucerne before getting bronze in Poland.

Similarly Eric Murray and Hamish Bond have morphed from half of the world champion coxless four of 2007 into a formidable pair, winning all three regatta golds in Europe.

They may go on to surpass Bridgewater and Twaddle as a combination of the highest class.

Drysdale and lightweight single Duncan Grant - perhaps New Zealand's most anonymous three-time world champion but luckless in that his event is not on the Olympic programme - show no sign of waning.

Drysdale, yet to lose a world championship singles final, is shaping as the face of Karapiro 2010.

Projections are that 25,000 people will crush into Karapiro for the final few days of the world championships next year.

The prospect of silver fern-clad rowers slicing down the lake at the head of their finals is mouth-watering. Seeing it happen will swell the roars.

And while it is no guarantee of success, Poznan proved that New Zealand are on track for a formidable presence in their home waters.

POZNAN GOLD:

Olympic events (14)

3: New Zealand and Germany
2: United States and Poland
1: Britain, Belarus, Greece and Ukraine

Total events (22)

4: New Zealand and Germany 4
3: US 3
2: Poland and Italy 2
1: Britain, Belarus, France, Greece, Netherlands, Switzerland and Ukraine

NZ'S MEDAL HAUL:
(World Cups at Munich and Lucerne, plus World Champs in Poznan)

14 gold medals
Mahe Drysdale, Duncan Grant, Hamish Bond/Eric Murray, Storm Uru/Peter Taylor 3 each; Emma Feathery/Rebecca Scown 2

3 silver medals
Emma Twigg 2, Nathan Cohen and Matthew Trott

3 bronze medals
Women's quad 2, Feathery/Scown