Olympic gold for New Zealand rowing pair

New Zealand have grabbed their first Olympic gold medal after double scullers Nathan Cohen and Joseph Sullivan won gold last night.

The defending world champions won the title after a powerhouse second half on Eton Dorney.

As is typical of the dynamic duo, the pair started slowly and were sixth at the 500m mark and were 3.4 seconds behind early pacesetters Istok Cop and Luka Spik of Slovenia at halfway.

Cohen said despite the slow start the pair were confident of their race plan.

"It was about staying composed and waiting for our moment," Cohen said after the race. "It was nothing new for us. We do a lot of our racing from behind. That's what makes us fight so hard."

But they wound up at the 1500m mark, when they were still fourth. They flew through the field to edge in front of Italians Romano Battisti and Alessio Sartori and power away to win in magnificent fashion. They crossed the line in 6min 31.67 seconds, 1.13s ahead of the Italians with Slovenia third.

"That last 500m is where they paid and we benefitted," Sullivan said of the Italians and Slovenian crews.

Cohen said it was a matter of having faith and beleiving in one another.

"We had toughness and belief in each other. We never give up, just wanted to do the best for each other and New Zealand that we possibly could."

The two men are New Zealand's seventh Olympic rowing gold medallists, dating back to the coxed four from Mexico City in 1968 and are the country's first champions in the men's double scull.

It means New Zealand have won golds at four successive Olympic rowing regattas after Rob Waddell (single scull, 2000), and the Evers-Swindell twins (women's double scull, 2004 and 2008).

Their win follows bronze medals for the eventing team and coxless pair Juliette Haigh and Rebecca Scown 24 hours earlier.

In total, New Zealand have won 17 Olympic rowing medals - seven gold, two silver and eight bronze.

Meanwhile, lightweight men Storm Uru and Peter Taylor and single sculler Emma Twigg are through to their A final tomorrow night, but neither crew will get one of the favoured two middle lanes.

Uru and Taylor were seen off by a strong Danish performance from Mads Rasmussen and Rasmus Quist, who won the semifinal impressively and qualified fastest for the final.

Uru and Taylor held off Germany for second, clocking 6:36.71, 3s behind the Danes.

Twigg was third in her semifinal in 7:46.71, behind Dane Fie Udby Erichsen and China's Xiuyun Zhang.

There were tears and bitter disappointment for the lightweight women scullers Julia Edward and Louise Ayling in their semifinal.

Winners of one world cup regatta and runners up in the other this season, they arrived in London with high hopes but had them emphatically dashed last night. They finished fifth, beating home only Cuba, in a time of 7:15.06.

The men's coxless four of Tyson Williams, Jade Uru, Sean O'Neill and Chris Harris also missed their A final, finishing fourth in their semifinal.

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