New Zealanders claim two medals at Under-23 World Championships
A silver medal performance by the men's coxed four was the highlight for the New Zealand under-23 team on the first finals day in Linz, Austria over night.
The women's four also won a bronze and the women's quad featuring Rotorua'sClaudia Hyde finished fifth in their final. The two medals have started New Zealand off in excellent finals fashion, at the weekend.
The women's four of Kristen Froude, Johannah Kearney, Abbey Green , Kelsi Walters were racing crews from Poland, Russia, Australia, Ireland and the Netherlands in their A final, and they were the first New Zealand crew to get onto the podium for bronze. The Australians came away with the gold and were able to upgrade on their silver from 2012. Ireland, Russia and New Zealand were battling for the silver and bronze medals throughout the race. Russia came home to take second and New Zealand got the better of Ireland to take the bronze medal.
The men's coxed four final had New Zealand fronting crews from Canada, France, Italy, Australia and Germany. New Zealand were bronze medalists in this event in 2012 and were able to go one better to claim silver in 2013 with coxswain Sam Bosworth, Evan Kennedy, Logan Keys, Cameron Crampton and Jared Glue able to proudly stand on the dias. Italy got off to a flying start and kept the lead through the race, New Zealand pulled themselves back at the midway point and pushed for second and were closing on the Italians. The Italians held on for gold, while the New Zealanders screamed home for silver and Germany just held on for the bronze.
The women's quadruple scull were the last New Zealand crew to race on the first day of finals. They were up against it racing crews from Italy, USA, Poland, Germany and Romania. The New Zealand crew finishing fifth. Romania took the gold, Poland silver and Germany the bronze.
The crews to compete in finals on the last day of under-23 competition will be the women's lightweight double scull, men's lightweight single scull, men's quadruple scull and the men's eight.
