Rowing: Weight of expectation on Kiwi rowers

Peter Taylor and Storm Uru are in a second Olympic cycle. Photo / Getty Images

Oh, how an Olympic cycle can change expectations.

Four years ago, New Zealand's rowers embarked on an international season with 11 athletes, four out of five boats that had made Athens Olympic finals and yet were solely propped up for profile by an almost unbeatable women's double sculls combination known simply as "the twins".

That season ended three months later with four gold medals in 45 minutes on the banks of the Nagara River in Japan.

So this year, the profile and experience have changed but, if anything, in opposite directions.

It's a team of 22 athletes, led by a Beijing bronze medallist you might have heard of called Mahe Drysdale, yet just two of the 11 boats feature athletes who made Olympic finals. There are just two survivors from 2005 - Drysdale and men's pair bow seat Eric Murray.

On paper, it suggests they're weaker, although seven athletes did compete at the Olympics.

However the perception of the sport has altered to a point where there's an assumption they will return with prizes.

Since that balmy September afternoon in Japan the squad has won five gold, four silver and three bronze world championship medals, as well as back-to-back Olympic golds for Georgina and Caroline Evers-Swindell and two bronzes. Rowing was the nation's most successful sport at Beijing.

Head coach Dick Tonks sums up the mood heading into post-Olympic year.

"With everyone leaving, it looked a bit lean on the ground but the new men's pair (of Murray and Hamish Bond) is going quick and the lightweight double [of Storm Uru and Peter Taylor] is into its second Olympic campaign."

High performance manager Alan Cotter says that's complemented by crews they want to build through to London 2012.

"Notably the women's quad and men's lightweight four," he says. "It's exciting having those young ones come through to build a team. The women's pair and women's double also obviously have big shoes to fill."

The one key change on previous campaigns is a trip to Britain's Henley Royal Regatta between the World Cups in Munich and Lucerne. It's an area of experimentation Tonks sees as logical.

"It's something we've looked at the last four years but I'm not sure we'd do it every year. It could offer a little less tension for those who have been around a long time like the men's pair. The squad flies out for Europe, first stop Munich, on Friday.



ON THE WATER

World Cups

Munich (June 19-21)

Lucerne (July 10-12)

Henley Royal Regatta (July 1-5)

World Championships

Poznan, Poland (August 23-30)

New Zealand team

Men: single scull, Mahe Drysdale; lightweight single scull, Duncan Grant; adaptive single scull, Robin Tinga; double scull, Matthew Trott, Nathan Cohen; lightweight double scull, Storm Uru, Peter Taylor; coxless pair, Eric Murray, Hamish Bond; lightweight four, Todd Petherick, James Lassche, Richard Beaumont, Graham Oberlin-Brown.

Women: single scull, Emma Twigg; coxless pair, Rebecca Scown, Emma Feathery; double scull, Paula Twining, Anna Reymer; quadruple scull, Harriet Austin, Sarah Barnes, Louise Trappitt, Genevieve Armstrong.