Rowing: Twins reach sculls final

New Zealand rowing twins Georgina and Caroline Evers-Swindell have swept into the double sculls final at a World Cup meeting in Munich.

They were in command of their 2000m repechage from the start, after whipping through the opening 500m nearly four seconds ahead of their rivals. They finished 4.45s ahead of Hungary, stopping the clock at 7m 34.180s. nteLithuania won the other repechage in 7m 45.51s.

New Zealand's women are in three finals, having also qualified for the quadruples sculls (the twins, Sonia Waddell and Paula Twining) and the coxless four (Jackie Abraham, Kathryn Robinson, Rochelle Saunders and Nicola Coles). were the fastest in the heats.nte

The men's coxless four missed out on a final place.

Sam Earl, Ian Smallman, Rob Hellstrom and Jamie Fitzgerald were eliminated yesterday after a fourth in their semifinal.NZPA

Second slowest of 13 crews in the heats, the four went nearly 10 seconds faster in Friday's repechage to finish second to Denmark.

Denmark was well adrift of the New Zealand crew today, but fourth behind Germany, France and the United States was not enough to seal a place in the final.

Fourth early, then third at halfway, New Zealand slipped back in the third-quarter of the race to finish more than seven seconds behind Germany.

- NZPA