Rowing: Twins net quintet

The Evers-Swindell twins emulated another Waikato great, Brenda Lawson, by picking up five premier titles at the national rowing championships on Lake Ruataniwha near Twizel yesterday.

Their achievements were magnified by a shortened time programme on the final day. For two days the regatta ran under the threat of high winds, with officials opting to start an hour early and compress the programme.

It meant Olympic double sculls champions Caroline and Georgina Evers-Swindell had barely 40 minutes between races.

Between them they were involved in winning all six premier events but they equalled Lawson's 1993 achievement of five titles each.

Georgina withdrew from the single sculls final and Caroline gave up her seat in the quad to Hamilton team-mate Fiona Patterson.

Their other wins came in the coxless pair, double scull, coxless four and eights for Hamilton.

There was no thought of pulling the twins out of the other races, despite the time constraints.

"We sat down and worked it out," said coach Dick Tonks.

"The first three races at 40-minute intervals were tight but we ran them back to the start by car in a couple of events."

Tonks rated the pairs title as their best achievement today.

"The pair was an unknown as they'd only been in the boat a week," he said.

"And they had never rowed against the West End crew." - Olympic finalists Juliette Haigh and Nicky Coles.

While the efforts of the Evers-Swindells captured centre stage, the Canterbury male Olympians racing for the Canaviron club went about their business without fuss.

Eric Murray, George Bridgewater, Donald Leach and Carl Meyer won the coxless four but today the target, with Matthew Trott replacing Bridgewater, was to retain the Boss Rooster trophy in the coxed four.

The did so without any problems, easing down toward the finish.

The Canaviron crew of Todd Petherick, David McKellar, Damian Brook and Storm Uru stormed to victory in the men's premier quad, recording 5min, 59.54sec, a time associated more often with an eight.

Canaviron came out all guns firing in the final race, the men's premier eight.

The crew of Michael Stuart, Trott, Murray, Bridgewater, Leach, Meyer, David Earl, Christopher Flanaghan and cox Annie Robinson pulled away over the final stages.

Meanwhile Mahe Drysdale defeated young pretender Nathan Coen from Invercargill in the men's single scull final.

- NZPA