Rowing: Evers-Swindell twins lead strong NZ start

9.00pm - By DANIEL GILHOOLY

ATHENS - New Zealand has its first Olympic finalists of the Athens Games after twins Georgina and Caroline Evers-Swindell won their double sculls rowing heat here today.

While that result was predictable, it was an eventful first day for the New Zealand crews at the Schinias course. Nathan Twaddle and George Bridgewater confirmed they are medal prospects by winning the men's pair in impressive style while the women's pair of Nicky Coles and Juliette Haigh fell into the water during their race, finishing a distant last.

Gold medal favourites the Evers-Swindells were five seconds up after 1000m and barely raised a sweat over the second of a race they dominated despite the hot conditions and slight headwind. They won their heat in a gentle seven minutes 25.57 seconds, 4.18sec clear of one of their major rivals, Great Britain.

German pair Britta Oppelt and Peggy Waleska won the other heat in 7min 28.89sec to also advance automatically to the final on Saturday next week.

Twaddle and Bridgewater qualified for the semifinals on Wednesday, in the process surprising two of the more favoured crews in their heat, Canada and Italy.

Canada led through the early stages but New Zealand, narrowly trailing at the halfway point, surged clear in the third quarter of the race. After opening up a 2.31sec lead, they found the advantage diminishing in the closing stages but held on to win by 1.48sec from the Canadians.

Their time of 6min 54.75sec was the quickest of the three heats, fractionally better than the other winners, Australia and South Africa.

Coles and Haigh suffered an ignominious dunking after tumbling into the water just after the 1000m mark in their race.

Coles' oar caught a rough patch of water, flinging both rowers out of the boat. They both clambered back in and completed the race in a distant last place, which at least ensures they still qualify for the repechages on Monday.

The New Zealanders were coming third at the time of the incident but ended up limping over the line in 9min 37.53sec, more than 2min behind winners Romania.

Coles said she had "caught a crab", a rowing term for getting the oar caught in an uneven patch of water, lifting it violently from her hand.

Earlier, Sonia Waddell finished second in her women's single sculls heat to open New Zealand's sporting involvement at the Games.

Waddell was beaten home by Czech Republic sculler Mirka Knapkova meaning she will have to row a repechage on Monday.

Waddell held a slight advantage over Knapkova through the 500m and 1000m marks. However, the Czech made her move after the halfway point, pulling 2.59sec clear and then rowing away to win easily in seven minutes 25.21 seconds.

Waddell was second in 7min 36.10sec, the fourth fastest time of the 24 rowers in action but not enough to advance to the semifinals.

The men's four of Donald Leach, Mahe Drysdale, Carl Meyer and Eric Murray were to be the last New Zealanders in action later this morning.

- NZPA