New Zealand's domination of pairs rowing continued at the Munich World Cup regatta, with Juliette Haigh sealing a fairytale comeback to the sport with a win alongside Rebecca Scown in the women's pair and world champions Eric Murray and Hamish Bond taking out an absolute thriller against the British pair to extend their winning streak over their main rivals to eight races. It was a good regatta for New Zealand's athletes, with two wins and two seconds following Duncan Grant's Saturday silver.
Haigh and Scown showed some stunning training times were no fluke with a dominant win in a class field that included boats from China, Romania, Germany and Great Britain. Six seconds up at halfway, they looked completely in control and cruised him with clear water on the field. For Haigh, the 2005 world champion in the class, it was a sweet moment and for both a return to the top of the international rowing dais.
"We are very happy with how the race panned out," explained Scown. "We really felt comfortable and worked on rowing well together. It was a good start for us and an enjoyable race."
Bond and Murray were next up in what is fast becoming the headline race in each international rowing regatta. Andrew Triggs Hodge and Peter Reed are Britain's best rowers and have been getting closer and closer to the Kiwis pace. Some recent injury and illness in the New Zealand boat, kept under the radar by the team management, meant the world champions were not quite as well prepared for the regatta as they could have been and this helped bring the Brits right into play. The two boats were never apart, but the Kiwis passed each marker ahead. At 1500 metres they had their biggest lead of the race, but a huge push by the British brought them to within half a length at the finish. The massive effort taken by both crews was clear and a very appreciative crowd showed its support for both top class boats.
World champions Storm Uru and Peter Taylor came second in the lightweight double sculls, losing their first race in over a year to the Olympic champions Zac Purchase and Mark Hunter from Great Britain. This was another epic, with the two boats overlapping and being harried by a young German crew for most of the course. To lose to the Olympic champions is no disgrace, but Taylor and Uru have incredibly high standards and will be keen to turn the result around in Lucerne in three weeks.
The 'A' men's four of David Eade, Jade Uru, Hamish Burson and Sean O'Neill made a very solid international debut, finishing fifth but proving competitive throughout the final, which was won by Australia. To finish just a couple of seconds behind the British world champions and having taken the race on from the word go showed how much potential there is in Dave Thompson's two boat group. His second boat finished second in the B final - another creditable result. The two boats now merge for a crack at the Grand Challenge Cup at the Henley Royal Regatta in two weeks.
The women's quad couldn't quite repeat the heroics of the first two days of the regatta and came home sixth in the A final. Trappitt, Twining, Paterson and Feathery, however, had shown the Kiwi quad does have potential. Making the main final was the first step, and they will be looking for further improvements in Lucerne.
For the men's double scull of Nathan Cohen and Joseph Sullivan, and women's single sculler Emma Twigg, nothing less than victory in the B final (which ranks the 7th through to 12th placed finishers) and both boats duly delivered. 'A' finals would have been the goal, however and both boats will be keen in future regattas not to make the same mistakes again.
The men's quad finished third in its B final with Olympic bronze medallist Nathan Twaddle on board. "We are learning more from each race and we are taking confidence from the improvement we are making. Munich has been useful as a stepping stone on that road of progress," he said.
