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MUNICH - The Olympic hopes of the New Zealand men's and women's eights were left dangling after they struggled to match the sizzling pace set at the world championships here on Monday (NZ time).
The two young New Zealand crews were far from humiliated and refused to lay down their oars and surrender.
However, it is apparent they face an enormous task to qualify for Beijing after both finished fifth in high quality heats.
Of the 10 crews chasing Olympic targets in Munich this week, the eights always faced the stiffest challenge.
While most leading nations regard eights as their premier crew, New Zealand have only begun to reinvest in the big boats following long periods of success in the 1970s and 1980s. The men are on their first campaign since 1998 while the women only returned last year.
That was borne out on the Oberschleissheim course as the men were left four lengths behind world champions Germany, the Netherlands, United States and Belarus.
The women were closer to the pace but still trailed in the wake of Romania, Germany, China and the Netherlands.
Both crews face do-or-die repechages on Wednesday, with failure meaning they will miss Olympic qualifying.
If that was the case, New Zealand rowing must decide whether it is worth the considerable expense of sending them to a last-ditch qualifying regatta in Lucerne early next year.
The men must finish in the top three of their five-boat race on Wednesday to advance to the semifinals while the women need a top-two placing in a four-pronged repechage featuring classy Chinese and United States crews.
If they are successful, the men must then either reach the A-final or win the B-final to qualify for Beijing via a top seven placing. The women's route is even tougher, needing a top-five finish.
New Zealand men's stroke Carl Finlay said giving up on Beijing was the last thing on the mind of the crew.
"It's definitely achievable, anything's possible," Finlay said.
"It's a very strong field out there but we're just going to try our best and hopefully it's fast enough to qualify for next year.
"It was always going to be hard to get straight through to the semis today. We were planning to go through the repechages, we'll give it a good nudge there."
Finlay said they hadn't been distracted by constant reference, mainly in the media, to the iconic New Zealand men's eight of 1972 who won Olympic gold at the same Oberschleissheim course here.
"Everyone's well aware of the history but we haven't focused on it too much at all."
Finlay said he and crewmates Graeme Hill, Peter Benny, Benjamin Scott, Steven Cottle, Rob Hellstrom, Selwyn Cleland, Paul Gerritsen and cox Daniel Quigley had made massive strides since they landed in Amsterdam for a World Cup regatta 2-1/2 months ago. They struggled there but had improved three weeks later for the equivalent event in Lucerne, where they placed 10th.
"In the last four or five weeks we've made another huge step forward so hopefully we can move the last couple of places up to qualify for next year," Finlay said.
The women's crew of Tamsin Gilbert, Simone Hudson, Emma-Jane Feathery, Rebecca Scown, Fiona Paterson, Paula Twining, Nikki-Lee Crawford, Erin Tolhurst and cox Candice Bardsley trailed for most of their race but never lost touch, clocking 6min 25.83sec, more than 10 sec behind Olympic champions Romania.
Earlier today lightweight men's double scullers Peter Taylor and Graham Oberlin-Brown were a comfortable third in their he at behind Great Britain and the United States.
A top-four finish was needed to reach Wednesday's quarterfinals, something that was guaranteed when China withdrew from the heat, reducing the field to just four.
The lightweight double will also need a top-three finish to advance to Friday's semifinals.
If they can do that they are in the box seat to qualify the boat for Beijing as the top-11 crews meet the criteria.
There was to be three New Zealand crews all chasing top-three finishes in quarterfinals tonight (NZ time) to advance to Thursday's semifinals.
They are single scullers Mahe Drysdale and Emma Twigg and the men's double scull of Matthew Trott and Nathan Cohen.
- NZPA
