Six New Zealand boats made the A finals at the World Cup regatta in Munich on Saturday, but there was disappointment for Bled star Emma Twigg and the new look double scull of Nathan Cohen and Joseph Sullivan with both producing disappointing rows and missing out on the A finals.
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| The mens A Four qualifying for their final (Photo: Rowing New Zealand) |
Duncan Grant - lightweight world champion in the single scull - won his semi final in a very close field. In the A final held later in the day however, he suffered a rare defeat to up and coming Hungarian Peter Galambos. Grant led for three quarters of the race, but missed out by a length in the dash to the line. A silver medal will have disappointed him, but was not a bad result in his first international race of the season.
'A' finalists for Sunday will include the men's pair of Eric Murray and Hamish Bond, who won their semi and will have another face-off against the British boat of Andrew Triggs Hodge and Peter Reed. The Kiwis look to be narrow favourites again, but it is set to be another epic battle between two class boats.
The women's pair of Rebecca Scown and Juliette Haigh won their semi in the fastest time and will also enter the A final as the fastest qualifiers.
World lightweight double scull champions Peter Taylor and Storm Uru will also be lining up in an A final, though they only came second in their semi after trying a new strategy. "This is a time to try things out," said Taylor. "Today our plan didn't work so we will throw that out and go back to what works for us."
The development men's A four of David Eade, Jade Uru, Hamish Burson and Sean O'Neill rowed well to make the A final with a third place in their semi, and it looked like two Kiwi boats in the race as the B boat went neck and neck with the British world champions in the second semi final. Second at halfway and needing a top three finish, they were neck and neck with the Serbs and the Czech Republic at 1,500 metres but could not sustain the pace to the line. Coach Dave Thompson was pleased with their efforts though. One boat in the A final and one in the B final in a field of more than 20 boats was a great start to the campaign which should ultimately produce one boat for the world championships at Lake Karapiro later this year.
The sixth boat into an A final was the rejuvenated women's quad. Bolstered by Fi Paterson, the crew held fifth at half way but then showed great speed and maturity to move back through the field passing the Swiss and Chinese to move into the all important second place.
The men's quad were closer to the pace but didn't have quite enough to get into the top three in the hotter of the two semi finals. They will be looking for a good result in the B final as their development continues.
For Twigg , Cohen and Sullivan, it is likely that nothing bar a win in the B final will do as they would have hoped to figure in the A finals.
Results are available at www.worldrowing.com.
