New Zealand elite rowers set tongues wagging in international rowing today with the men's eight comfortably beating the British crew that won the first World Cup regatta in Bled and setting up a clash in Sunday's final with the world champions in the men's eight from Germany. They will be joined in the Henley finals by Mahé Drysdale, the men's pair and the women's quadruple scull.
After defeating Cambridge in the quarter final, the British eight was a much sterner test for Dave Thompson's enthusiastic young crew but they delivered the upset of the day to knock out the Bled winners, which included 1992 Olympic champion and rowing returnee Greg Searle.
The crew immediately put the British under pressure with a time to the first checkpoint that equalled the course record and then piled on the pressure through the middle third of the race to establish a clear water lead. The British came back through the second half - slightly - but the Kiwi eight kept it's foot hard on the accelerator and stormed home in a time of 6 minutes and one second, the second fastest time recorded in 161 years of the regatta and just a couple of seconds shy of the fastest ever, set in 1989 by the German Hansa Dortmund national squad crew. The current German crew – rowing once again as Hansa Dortmund – defeated the Canadian eight to secure their place in what should be a brilliant Grand Challenge Cup final.
Eric Murray and Hamish Bond continued their relentless march to their second consecutive final in the Silver goblets - the event for open pairs, defeating a crew from Leander. They will face arch rivals Andrew Triggs Hodge and Peter Reed in another mouth watering clash between the two boats.
Mahé Drysdale put injury worries behind him and scored a great win against Canadian Malcolm Howard, who was sixth at the last World Cup event in Munich. Drysdale's back injury appears to be well under control now and the four times world champion looked to have plenty of pace in the second half of the race, despite his lack of intensive training in recent weeks. He goes for a third Diamond Sculls title against Sweden's Lassi Karonen.
The women's quad of Louise Trappitt, Emma Feathery, Paula Twining and Fi Paterson also rowed a great semi final to defeat the Dutch women's quad and set up a final against their British counterparts, who have dominated so far at the World Cup regattas.
There was disappointment for Storm Uru and Peter Taylor who lost to the French heavyweight double but gave them a scare and forced them to break the course record to half way as the lightweight world champions piled on the pressure after a blistering start. The men's quad also performed well and looked to have made significant progress from Munich by holding onto the British boat. Nathan Twaddle, John Storey, Paul Gerritsen and Matthew Trott will take heart from the result and will no doubt head to Lucerne next week determined to further demonstrate the improvements they have made.
New Zealand Senior eight champions West End Rowing Club completed a great day for Kiwi rowing by making the final of the club event for eights, the Thames Cup. They knocked out US club champs Potomac and will race British crew 1892 in the final.
