Rowing: Southland brothers set the pace with early heat wins

Storm Uru. Photo / Sarah Ivey

It was a good day to be an Uru at the world rowing championships yesterday.

First up, defending lightweight double scull champion Storm Uru and his partner Peter Taylor won their heat to move into tomorrow's semifinals, and maintain the likelihood of a mouthwatering matchup against Olympic champions Zac Purchase and Mark Hunter. Then a few minutes later, kid brother Jade Uru was part of the coxless four which turned in a resounding display to win their heat and advance directly to the final on Friday.

"Yeah, that was great to see, I'm pretty proud of my little brother there," Storm Uru said."They had a fabulous race and they were right in the thick of it and managed to pull it out. It's great to see your brother performing so well, and he's in the final before I am, so that's pretty cool."

The coxless four won in 5min 49.87s to qualify quickest for the final, alongside Britain, who won the other heat but were slower by 1.09s. While that effort raised the odd eyebrow, Storm Uru and Taylor were expected to be among the frontrunners for their title, and advanced comfortably along with Italy in 6:17.46.

So do the Southland brothers - Storm at 25 three years older - take much notice of each other's progress at the big regattas?

"I actually don't notice him too much to be honest," Jade Uru said."I did get a couple of glances across to his race, but you just have to stay focused on what you're doing and know that he's out there going fast, and when it comes to my turn he knows I'll be out there doing the same." After the race there was time for "a bit of a yarn".

So while the coxless four, also including stroke David Eade, Hamish Burson and Simon Watson, have shot into gold medal contention, it was always expected the lightweight double would be in the frame. They were almost 3s quicker than Purchase and Hunter, the other heat winners, but both parties agreed that margin was irrelevant.

"You have to look at it from the fact that it's only heats day, so we're not going too much off times. You go off the race you're in and today we did what we needed to do," Storm Uru said.

Purchase and Hunter took a break last year but are making up for lost time since their Olympic win in Beijing.

Of the 3s deficit yesterday, Purchase wasn't worried."Not at all. We'll beat them when we get there [the final]," he tipped confidently.

The elongated season had helped them and they're anticipating a cracking head to head contest, assuming both progress safely from the semifinals.

"They had a great season last year when we weren't racing," said Purchase."I look forward to getting back alongside them."