Rowing: Top start by Kiwi pair

Hamish Bond and Eric Murray. Photo / Getty Images

New Zealand's world champion men's pair Hamish Bond and Eric Murray made a strong start to the first World Cup rowing regatta of the season at Lake Bled in Slovenia overnight (NZT).

Despite the New Zealanders' training being curtailed by a rib injury to Bond at the national trials in March, the pair comfortably won their heat to progress to the semifinals on the opening day of competition.

Bond and Murray led at every mark, eventually cruising to victory in a time of six minutes 29.60 seconds, ahead of the Great Britain No 2 team of Cameron Nichol and Tom Burton in 6min 33.12sec and Germany's Kristof Wilke and Richard Schmidt third in 6min 33.38sec.

The top British crew of Peter Reed and Andrew Triggs Hodge, beaten into second by Bond and Murray at the world championships in Poland last August, won their heat in 6min 26.48sec.

"We had a pretty slow start, which is probably due to the fact that we have missed time out of the boat and lack of speed work," Murray said.

"But once we got into our rhythm we struck a nice speed and continued to push the boat through the second 500m of the race.

"We established our lead and pushed away from the field. It was a good heat race as we know we have plenty more speed up our sleeve for the semifinal tomorrow."

Two other New Zealand crews competing at the opening regatta of the World Cup season had mixed fortunes.

Bond and Murray were joined in the next round by single sculler Emma Twigg, who won her heat, but there was disappointment for the new women's quad, who finished fourth and last in their heat.

Harriet Austin, Paula Twining, Emma Feathery and Louise Trappit went down to crews from the Ukraine, China and the Netherlands and must now take on a competitive field in the repechage.

Just three New Zealand crews are contesting the regatta, with the bulk of the national squad arriving in Europe ahead of the second round of the World Cup series in Munich, Germany, on June 18-20.

That includes four-time world single sculling champion Mahe Drysdale, who was scheduled to compete at Bled but withdrew because of a back injury that has limited his training time since March.

- NZPA