New Zealand team captures three golds at World Cup rowing regatta in Austria
Kerri Gowler and Grace Prendergast romped to gold in the women's pair final at the World Cup regatta in Linz, Austria. (FILE PHOTO)
Defending world champions Kerri Gowler and Grace Prendergast began their European campaign in dominant style on Sunday night.
Gowler and Prendergast raced to a huge margin of victory in their women's pairs final at the World Cup II regatta in Austria as NZ boats collected three golds and a silver from eight A finals.
The Kiwi duo powered away through the middle stages of the 2000m race and won by almost seven seconds in a time of 7:08.53, with Italy second and Great Britain almost 14 seconds behind the victors in taking bronze.
"The race was good considering this was our first one in Europe this year," Gowler told the World Rowing website.
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"We hope to see more of this and potentially step it up with our training camps on the way to the world rowing championships."
Their victory was matched by that of another NZ world championship combination as Olivia Loe and Brooke Donoghue claimed gold in the women's double sculls.
The New Zealand women's double sculls crew of Olivia Loe and Brooke Donoghue also won gold. (FILE PHOTO)
The 2017 world champs also produced a strong middle 1000m to take victory over The Netherlands by 2.45 seconds in 6:52.30 with one of two German crews in the final collecting bronze.
"That was great as we wanted to just do our own race," Loe said.
"We had a steady first 1000 meters and then pushed. Everyone is going to keep stepping it up so we will need to do the same."
Men's single sculler Robbie Manson scored NZ's third gold of the regatta in a gripping final. The holder of the world's best time had to come from third place at the midway stage to get past the German duo of Tim Ole Naske and Oliver Zeidler. Manson's winning time of 6:44.96 gave him a margin of victory of 1.24s over Ole Naske, with Zeidler another 1.07s back in third.
Robbie Manson captured NZ's third gold with a win in the men's single scull final at the World Cup II regatta in Linz, Austria. (FILE PHOTO)
"That was really hard work and I feel pretty tired right now," Manson told World Rowing.
"Towards the end, I was just putting in strokes and I managed to get past Tim and Oli. It's been a lot of hard work and a lot of nerves leading up to this so it feels pretty special."
Manson is up against two-time Olympic champ Mahe Drysdale in a battle for the NZ world championship spot, with Drysdale withdrawing before his semifinal with a heavy cold.
In the women's eight final, the NZ crew of Kelsey Bevan, Kelsi Waters, Emma Dyke, Elizabeth Ross, Jackie Gowler, Lucy Spoors, Kelsi Parker, Ella Greenslade and coxswain Sam Bosworth charged hard over the closing stages to take silver but couldn't catch winners The Netherlands, finishing 1.78s back in 6:05.56 with a four second gap back to bronze medalists Australia.
Last year's world champs, Chris Harris and John Storey, were fourth in the men's double sculls final won convincingly by Great Britain, with Germany taking silver and Switzerland bronze.
Jackie Kiddle and Zoe McBride, NZ's lightweight women's double sculls crew, were pipped for bronze in a tight finish of their final won by Italy, with The Netherlands second. Romania, who edged out the Kiwi duo for gold at last year's world champs, took bronze by .02s from fourth-placed Switzerland, with NZ a further .11s back.
The rookie NZ lightweight men's double sculls crew of Ben van Dalen and Matt Dunham were sixth in their A final, while a young NZ men's quad were fifth.
The Kiwis will also contest the final World Cup regatta of the season in Lucerne, Switzerland, next month. The team to compete at the world champs in Bulgaria in September will be named shortly after the Lucerne regatta.
- Stuff
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