Another tremendous performance by New Zealand's elite rowing team assured starts for nine out of eleven crews in A finals at the World Cup regatta in Munich - with Duncan Grant going on to take a win in his A final and adaptive athlete Robin Tinga finishing a creditable fourth in his first international regatta.
Men's pair Eric Murray and Hamish Bond - who inflicted something of a shock defeat for the top British crew yesterday forcing the flagship boat into the repechage - Rebecca Scown and Emma Feathery (women's pair), Matthew Trott and Nathan Cohen (men's double), Duncan Grant (lightweight single scull), Emma Twigg (women's single scull), Mahé Drysdale (men's single scull), Robin Tinga (adaptive single), Storm Uru and Peter Taylor (lightweight double scull) and the women's quad all qualified for the major finals.
Duncan Grant maintained his good form of yesterday's heats with another win in the semi final of the men's lightweight single scull. The two time world champion was second quickest in the semi finals behind Japan's Daisaku Takeda. He then raced the A final later in the afternoon but having gone so much quicker yesterday will be confident of finding the speed needed to give him an excellent chance in his A final.
The other athlete racing an A final today was New Zealand's first adaptive athlete Robin Tinga. In his first international regatta he finished a good fourth behind the two British scullers and the Hungarian. Winner Tom Aggar was the Olympic gold medallist in Beijing, so Tinga has the perfect benchmark to aim for.
In the women's double sculls, only two crews from each repechage would qualify. The Polish got in front and dominated. New Zealand's Paula Twining and Anna Reymer had a good struggle all the way with the Chinese for the second qualifying spot. They were just behind coming into the final 250m and put in a big sprint but it wasn’t quite enough and they finished 0.4sec behind the Chinese. They will learn from this and now know what needs to be done in the next nine weeks before the World Championships. They just raced the B Final and won comfortably leading all the way to finish 7th overall.
Matthew Trott and Nathan Cohen beat the fastest double of the heats from Germany to seal their place in one of the favoured lanes of the main A final. The crew maintained a lead of about a length throughout after a quick first 500 metres. A late flourish in the race with a burst of 38 strokes per minute pushed the lead out to a length. They now face two German crews, the British, the Poles and the Estonians in the A final.
Olympic Games finalist Mirka Knapkova could be Emma Twigg's main target in the final of the women's single scull. Knapkova dominated her semi, leading home team mate Jitka Antasova and Poland's Agata Gramatyka in a time of 7 minutes 59.88 seconds. Twigg took the lead from evergreen Katherine Grainger in the second semi final after the British sculler powered off looking for an early advantage. The Hawkes Bay athlete looked comfortable throughout and although Grainger sneaked through to secure the favoured starting lane with a late burst of 36 strokes a minute, Twigg will be confident of a good showing in the final - her time some 16 seconds quicker than Knapkova's.
Mahé Drysdale had a surprisingly routine passage to the A final, leading comfortably throughout and not experiencing any threat from Olympic champion Olaf Tufte, who looked a little out of sorts. Andre Vornaburg established himself in third place and remained there throughout. Those three will be joined in the final by usual suspects Alan Campbell - the winner in Banyoles in the first World Cup - and Ondrej Synek with Mindaugas Griskonis of Lithuania the new kid on the block making his first major A final.
Storm Uru and Peter Taylor picked up from where they left yesterday with a great performance in their semi final, leading the way from another favoured crew containing Italy's legendary Elia Luini. Uru and Taylor took a good early lead of over a length by the 750 metre mark. They extended this lead to around four seconds at half way, six seconds at 1,500 metres and at the line, were still an impressive one length ahead. Great Britain, Germany and Poland qualified from the first semi final for what promises to be another exciting final.
The men's lightweight four of Richard Beaumont, Todd Petherick, Graham Oberlin Brown and James Lassche were in their first international regatta, and in one of only two Olympic-class lightweight categories were always going to be in a competitive field. Tiny margins are the norm in this category and the new crew were on the pace throughout, but failed to make the final. They went on to finish third in the B final.
Full results for this event are available at the World Rowing website.
NZ Team
Men
- Single Scull: Mahé Drysdale (World Champion 2005, 2006, 2007)
- Lightweight Single Scull: Duncan Grant (World Champion 2007, 2008)
- 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
