KEY POINTS:
The black boatshed began to resemble a Munich beer hall as New Zealand rowers and supporters toasted another golden day for the sport.
For a third successive world championships the New Zealand team were left tallying up a haul of medals.
Three were gold and two silver, comparing
favourably with the four golds at Gifu, Japan in 2005 and the six medals at Eton, England last year, of which just one was gold.
This week was the most commendable of the lot. This time all the world's best were definitely here and peaking in pursuit of places at next year's Olympic Games.
New Zealand on Thursday qualified seven boats for Beijing and the hopes of winning medals there were boosted considerably on Saturday.
On top of the world were single sculler Mahe Drysdale, Duncan Grant in the lightweight sculls and the men's four of Carl Meyer, James Dallinger, Eric Murray and Hamish Bond. Silver medals adorned the necks of women's double scullers Caroline and Georgina Evers-Swindell, and men's pair Nathan Twaddle and George Bridgewater.
While Drysdale bagged a record third consecutive gold, it was the colourful four who stole the limelight.
They sizzled home for the biggest upset of the finals after sitting in last place with half the course covered. The New Zealanders unleashed a withering surge which took them to the lead with 300m remaining.
Italy clung on to a surprise second from the Netherlands shutting a shellshocked Great Britain out of the medals. The British foursome had won their previous 27 races, including the Athens Olympic final.
Murray felt a high as the race-winning charge unfolded.
"As soon as Carl called to push and you could see we were making ground, the adrenaline just rushed," he said.
"We really put the foot on the throat with about 400m to go. Carl was yelling, Bondy was yelling, Dally was yelling."
The voiceboxes got a workout at the medal ceremony as well when the New Zealand anthem stopped playing midway through.
All four had been listening until that stage but there was little hesitation to start belting out God Defend New Zealand - although Dallinger privately wished the music would restart to keep their rendition in tune.
Meyer and Murray are veterans of the 2004 Olympic four and they considered their future in the crew after missing out on the world championships final last year.
"I was pretty despondent when I got back to New Zealand," said Meyer, dripping from the champagne just sprayed on him by Murray.
"I'd been sticking at this for four years getting nowhere. What a difference a year makes,"
Earlier, Drysdale won with far more comfort than last year, when he had frantically chased German Marcel Hacker down to win in the last couple of strokes.
"I felt like I was dictated to last year and I didn't like that," said Drysdale, still suffering the effects of a virus that struck midweek.
"I felt like I got lucky in that race. This time it took a bit longer than I would have liked but once I was in front I felt like I could just pull away from the field when I wanted."
Hacker never featured, while second-placed Ondrej Synek of the Czech Republic and early pacesetter Norwegian Olaf Tufte could chip only small chunks out of a lead established soon after the halfway mark.
Grant's win was even more straightforward than Drysdale's. He cleared away from the start to beat Italian Lorenzo Bertini and cap an unbeaten year at international level.
"Now I am looking forward to going back home, it has been a very long tour," Grant, who won bronze last year, said.
New Zealand's silver medallists face an enormous challenge to overcome the crews who beat them on Saturday at Beijing next year.
For the third time in 2007, Olympic champion sisters Caroline and Georgina Evers-Swindell played second-fiddle to the clinical Chinese combination of Qin Li and Liang Tian.
The three-time champions, who have now won medals at each of the last six world championships, admitted this week they aren't as fast as in previous seasons.
They say it could be attributed to a buildup ruined when Caroline was sidelined for nearly two months with a rib stress fracture.
Twaddle and Bridgewater had no answer to Australians Drew Ginn and Duncan Free as the 2006 finishing order played out again.
Bridgewater collapsed from exhaustion and was stretchered away by medical staff but later cleared. It left Twaddle to represent them both in the medal ceremony.
"George really put himself in a world of hurt to get us home," Twaddle said. "Because we hit the wall so early in the race, he had to 'red line' for a lot longer than what he normally would and paid the consequences of that.
"It was just one of those freak occurrences where the body decides it doesn't want to carry on."
Only three New Zealand crews in A finals didn't reach the dais, including last year's silver medalists in the women's pair Juliette Haigh and Nicky Coles. They were a disappointing fifth after showing promising form all week.
Women's single sculler Emma Twigg and the men's double scull of Matthew Trott and Nathan Cohen were sixth and last respectively but they have every reason to savour the week.
Twigg, 20, and Cohen, 21, have emerged as future champions and will show the benefits when they lower their craft into the waters of Beijing next year.
- NZPA
