Boisterous crowd inspires NZ rowers in medal haul

The waka leave Flynn Cove during yesterday's closing ceremony. Photo / Christine Cornege

Antonia Ballantyne, 8, has a tip for organisers of the World Rowing Championships - hold more of them here.

Why? "Because I think we will win more medals," she said.

Antonia, who with her mother Jill Noble and older sister Kelcy made the trip from Tauranga to Lake Karapiro yesterday, was among a packed lakeside crowd of 15,245 people who would eventually scream themselves hoarse.

Fans in the grandstand could be seen jumping up and down on their seats and banging their hands and feet on anything they could find to produce a roar that seemed to urge the New Zealanders on to a haul of three gold, three silver and three bronze medals.

Enjoying the off-water festivities was New Zealand coxless pair gold medallist Rebecca Scown, who was taking a break to join the throngs of people cheering her teammates on.

Scown, 27, said the noise from the raucous crowd was deafening and she could not hear the beep at the finish line during her race on Saturday.

She and her partner Juliette Haigh kept rowing, not realising they had won.

"I have never, ever raced in anything like that or seen anything like it and I don't think I will again," she said.

"From the 750m mark I could hear it, I could hear that chant 'Kiwi'... a lot of the time you don't even notice the crowd but when you're out there and thousands are chanting for you it's hard not to notice and not feel inspired."

The boisterous local support - which at 66,771 for the week's racing is the largest in the event's history - also seemed to give Nathan Cohen and Joseph Sullivan a lift in the men's double sculls final, the pair powering home over the final 500m to take the gold medal, although it could not inspire the men's eight to victory in the final in which they finished fifth.

One thing the crowd wasn't doing was booing during national anthems or throwing bottles at rival competitors, part of the ugly scenes that marred Saturday night's rugby league test at Eden Park.

"That's probably a rugby league thing, but it's a different crowd here," said rowing coach Rob Ryan.

"That was an aggressive crowd and it was a pretty horrible game.

"Here it's different, you can see the families with their kids really enjoying themselves."

World Rowing Championships 2010 spokeswoman Penny Dain said the event had been marvellous with no arrests over the week of racing.

Prime Minister John Key said yesterday the championships showed New Zealand could successfully host big sporting events.

Fisa president Denis Oswald praised the organisers, who had set a new level and created a model for future meets.

"It won't take 32 years until we come back."