Kiwi rowers in good shape for Munich World Champs

Kiwi rowers in good shape for Munich World Championships

Rowing’s week long World Championships kick off this weekend in Munich and there is a weight of expectation that New Zealand crews will excel.

The prospect of medals and surprise performances in pre-Olympic year is a real one. And following a successful season for the country’s elite, Under 23 and junior athletes on the international scene, Munich should confirm the country is building its reputation as a rowing nation that punches above its weight and can fight with the best of them.

“The elite squad is in great shape and everyone is going as well as we could have hoped for,” commented High Performance Manager Andrew Matheson. The squad, a large one by New Zealand standards, has been relatively unscathed by injury or illness in the recent build up to the regatta. Only Dane Boswell from the Men’s Eight – unable to shake off a shoulder injury – will not race. His seat will be taken by squad sub Peter Benny. Emma Twigg – who dominated the Women’s Single Scull event at the World Under-23 Championships in Scotland last month – is a late addition to the squad having impressed team management enough with her win to warrant a trip to Munich.

The squad for Munich includes crews in small and large boat classes. Twigg in the Women’s Single Scull has won at Junior level as well as at Under-23, and the question for her is ‘when’ rather than ‘if’ she becomes a world beater. Munich will give her an indication of exactly where she fits into the sport’s top bracket of female single scullers.

Reigning Men’s champion and world’s fastest time holder Mahé Drysdale knows well the pressures of being the best as he aims to put down his Beijing marker with a third world title on the bounce. But it won’t be easy. The Men’s Single Sculls event is one of the most competitive in rowing. Mahé won last time out at Lucerne in the World Cup regatta, but any one of six or more superb athletes could take gold next week.

Lightweight Single Sculler Duncan Grant has dominated his class this season, and for him, the top step of the dais is all that will matter. He will be looking to secure a crack at a place in the Olympic class Lightweight Double Scull, which races in Munich with Graham Oberlin Brown and Peter Taylor on board. They have had an inconsistent season but if the boat can muster a Top 11 finish position, it will be going to Beijing and the battle for a place will intensify amongst these three athletes and a gang of hungry lightweights lurking on the fringes of the elite squad.

Caroline and Georgina Evers-Swindell in the Women’s Double Scull and Nicky Coles and Juliette Haigh in the Women’s Pair (the 2007 World Cup winners) have been beaten by Chinese crews this season and it is likely that they will face the task of beating them again if they are to claim gold. Both are class combinations and have enjoyed trouble free run-ups to Munich.

The Men’s Pair and the Men’s Double Scull – crewed by Nathan Twaddle and George Bridgewater and Matthew Trott and Nathan Cohen respectively – have been flying in training. The pair were 2005 World Champions and as such are amongst the favourites, while the double is an exciting combination and are very much the ‘new kids on the block’ in the event. Trott and Cohen could spring a major, and pleasant, surprise.

Also quick, and now established as a leading contender for this event and for the Olympic Games is the Men’s Coxless Four. It won in Amsterdam with a blistering final flourish, and in the Semi-Final in Lucerne inflicted the first defeat on the World Champion crew from Great Britain. A third place in the final confirmed it will be one of the pace setters in the event, along with the Brits and the winners at Lucerne, the Dutch.

In the big boats, the Men’s Eight and the Women’s Eight face Herculean tasks. These are long term projects and young crews, and will look to continue what has been a steady improvement throughout the season. The country will passionately get behind the Men’s crew such is the romantic link with 1972, 1982 and 1983, when we were at the top of the tree. For this crew, at this stage of their international careers however, reaching the final itself will be a supreme achievement.

ENDS