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Mahe Drysdale - Source: Photosport -
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A golden Saturday looms for New Zealand at the rowing world
championships in Poznan, Poland.
Five of seven New Zealand boats in semifinals action overnight
qualified for the medal races, lifting the total so far to
six.
Single scullers Mahe Drysdale and Emma Twigg, the favoured men's
and women's pairs and the men's double of Nathan Cohen and Matthew
Trott will all race for gold on Saturday night.
Drysdale and the two pairs were the only New Zealanders to win
their semifinals, but the men's double were a close second and
Twigg a comfortable third.
The men's four narrowly missed out of qualifying for the A final
after finishing fourth in their semifinal, while the women's double
sculls of Anna Reymer and Paula Twining were also relegated to also
rans after also finishing fourth.
The women's pair of Rebecca Scown and Emma Feathery were the first
New Zealand crew to advance, although they provided some anxious
moments after making a slow start to their semifinal.
They found themselves fifth at the 500m mark after the German duo
of Kersten Hartmann and Marlene Sinnig raced out to the early
lead.
Scown and Feathery pride themselves on their strength in the middle
1000m and powered to the lead at the halfway stage.
It was a lead they never relinquished, cruising home in seven
minutes 24.63 seconds, ahead of Great Britain, with the Germans
fading to third.
"We didn't have the fastest start but we didn't let it faze us,"
Feathery said.
"It's quite nice to have that little bit of a shock to make us know
we need to do something a bit better in that area when we start
next time."
Of concern to the New Zealanders will be the performance of their
other major rivals.
The first three boats in the second semifinal -- the United States,
Australia and Romania - all set faster times.The men's pair of
Hamish Bond and Eric Murray were much more comfortable winners,
clocking 6min 29.86sec, just under 5sec ahead of France.
Great Britain's Andrew Triggs Hodge and Peter Reed won the opening
semifinal in 6min 30.79sec but their 500m, 1000m and 1500m split
times were almost identical to those of Bond and Murray, which
suggests a thrilling race could be in store.
"It would've been good to have been 10 seconds in front of them
(Great Britain) or something like that but we've certainly got
quite a few cards still up our sleeves," Bond said.
"It's just a matter of pulling them all out on Saturday."
The men's double gave New Zealand their third A finalists of the
day when they finished second in a fiercely contested semifinal
after Estonia jumped out to an early lead.
The German pair of Eric Knittel and Stephan Krueger and New
Zealand's Cohen and Trott took over in the last 100m.
The Germans squeaked home just over half a second ahead of the New
Zealanders.
"Today was a big step up from our heat. We think we rowed a lot
better, bit more on the pace," Cohen said.
Twigg advanced by finishing third in her semifinal.
She and her main title rivals, Belarussian Ekaterina
Karsten-Khodotovitch and Czech Mirka Knapkova, pulled clear of the
field at the halfway stage so did not have to force the pace.
Twigg conserved energy and allowed the other two to take the top
spots ahead of the final.
Drysdale barely got out of second gear in his semifinal, coasting
to victory.
"It was good. I just got out in front and controlled the race,"
Drysdale said.
"It's a slight mental edge having the fastest time (going into the
final) and I was quickest through the first 1000 which was a
bonus."
Great Britain's Alan Campbell won the first semi final from the
Czech Republic's Ondrej Synek.
Norway's Olympic champion Olaf Tufte qualified in third but almost
did not make it, squeezing into the final by just 28/100s of a
second ahead of the fourth-placed Greek rower.
The New Zealand lightweight men's four will contest the C final
tonight after finishing second in their C and D semifinal.
Also tonight, Duncan Grant races for a place in the men's
lightweight single final as do the lightweight double pairing of
Storm Uru and Peter Taylor.
