Rowing: Southern hospitality ends with premier win

Nathan Cohen and Matthew Trott won the men's premier double sculls yesterday. Photo / Christine Cornege

World-class scullers Matthew Trott and Nathan Cohen might have felt affronted when they were beaten into second place in their heat at the start of the national rowing championships by the makeshift Auckland combination of Peter Taylor and Mahe Drysdale.

The Southern men were fourth in the world championships last year; while Taylor is lightweight double sculling champion with Storm Uru and Drysdale is the supreme single sculler, four times a world champ.

So when the little and large Auckland duo forced Trott and Cohen to go through a repechage to make the final, they might not have seen the funny side.

Yesterday they restored some order with victory in the premier final, clocking 6m 23.59s to beat Taylor and Drysdale by 2.71s.

Trott and Cohen will also have enjoyed seeing the world champion Germans Eric Knittel and Stephen Krueger trail in third, although they have arrived as part of a German contingent primarily to check out the Lake Karapiro setup and get some racing before their European season begins.

Anna Reymer and Louise Trappitt won the women's double for Central, in 7m 08.78s, less than a second ahead of Auckland's two Emmas, Twigg and Feathery.

Olympic racers took wins in the two coxless pair finals yesterday.

Single sculler Twigg and former world pair champion Juliette Haigh were pushed hard by Central's Fiona Paterson and Rebecca Scown before winning in 7m 07.41s, 1.3s ahead at the line.

The men's title went to world champion Hamish Bond and under-23 world champion Jade Uru, representing Southern, who won in 6m 23.52s, almost 4s up on Bond's title-winning partner Eric Murray and another under-23 world titleholder Simon Watson, representing Waikato, with Auckland's Drysdale and fellow 2008 Olympic bronze medallist Nathan Twaddle well back in third.

Another of the German visitors, their world champion lightweight coxless four - competing in the premier division - finished fourth, more than 13s behind winners Bond, Trott, John Storey and Uru, who won in 6m 05.17s, with a Waikato combination including Murray and Watson at 6m 05.85s.

Storm Uru stamped himself the best lightweight single sculler by winning that title in 6m 57.89s, beating multi world champion Duncan Grant by 1.66s, with Taylor third almost 6s back. Southern's Lucy Strack won the women's lightweight single in 8:03.12. The feature event on the second day of finals today will be the men's single scull, with five world champions, most notably Drysdale and German Marcel Hacker.