KEY POINTS:
Blustery winds nearly scuppered a ninth national championships rowing title for sisters Georgina and Caroline Evers-Swindell on Lake Karapiro today.
The first day of finals near Cambridge was marred by howling north-east winds that chopped up the water and nearly saw racing cancelled.
The marooned twins had to perform a spectacular escape act to win the double sculls after Georgina "caught a crab" with 100m to go in their final.
Having held a moderate lead before the mishap - in which Georgina lost hold of an oar caught in ocean-like waves - the 2004 Olympic champions were suddenly under enormous pressure from crews from Central RPC's two top women's doubles of Anna Stantiall and Rosslyn Knox and Candice Hammond and Louise Ayling.
Georgina fought to get her sculling blade back and the stationary sisters executed a last-gasp blast more like a racing start and got themselves over the line with half a boat length to spare.
There was more conventional racing in a high-powered men's pairs final, featuring two halves of the world champion men's coxless fours.
In a classic north versus south battle, Southern pair Carl Meyer and Hamish Bond held off Waikato duo Eric Murray and James Dallinger, winning in an excellent time of six minutes 22 seconds considering the conditions.
Meyer was especially delighted after winning his first pairs title.
"I was thinking back to how many times I've finished second or third in this so I'm pretty happy to finally get the pair," Meyer told Radio Sport.
In the closest of the top events today, Peter Taylor and Storm Uru went fought out a classic lightweight single sculls final.
Taylor burst from the pontoon and held off a charging world under-23 champion Uru to win by just 0.4 seconds.
Both athletes are looking good ahead of national trials that will decide a lightweight double scull that will try to qualify for the Olympic Games.
World lightweight champion Duncan Grant was absent after illness forced him to withdraw.
South Island duo Matthew Trott and Nathan Cohen defend their double sculls title while the powerful women's coxless four of Emma Twigg, Nicky Coles, Juliette Haigh and Erin Tolhurst were two strong in their final.
The feature race tomorrow is the men's single sculls final where 2000 Olympic champion Rob Waddell and three time world champion Mahe Drysdale will go head-to-head for the fourth time this summer.
The race will be a fascinating forerunner to their three-race clash in the national trials next week which will determine which of them will race the single at the Beijing Olympic Games
RESULTS
Men
Pair: Carl Meyer/Hamish Bond (Canterbury) 6min 22.84sec 1, James Dallinger/Eric Murray (Waikato) 6:25.97 2, Rob Hellstrom/Nathan Twaddle (Auckland) 6:30.25 3
Double sculls: Matthew Trott (Canterbury)/Nathan Cohen (Southland) 6:40.24 1, Todd Petherick (Canterbury)/Storm Uru (Southland) 6:51.77 2, Daniel Karena/Joseph Sullivan (Central) 7:00.12 3
Lightweight single sculls: Peter Tayor (Auckland) 6:57.43 1, Storm Uru (Southland) 6:57.82 2, Graham Oberlin-Brown (Waikato) 7:10.78 3
Women
Double sculls: Georgina Evers-Swindell/Caroline Evers-Swindell (Waikat) 6:32.23 1, Candice Hammond/Louise Ayling (Central) 6:32.94 2, Penelope Smith/Rebecca Scown (Central) 6:35.47 3
Coxless four: Emma Twigg (Hawke's Bay)/Nicky Coles (Auckland)/Juliette Haigh (Auckland)/Erin Tolhurst (Auckland) 7:02.71 1, Simon Hudson/Rebecca Scown/Nikki-Lee Crawford/Harriett Anstin (Central) 7:06.22 2
Lightweight single sculls:
Sarah Alexander (Auckland) 8:06.92 1, Julia Trautvetter (Auckland) 8:05.43 2, Lucy Strack (Auckland) 8:07.13 3
- NZPA
