Rowing: Promising signs for rejigged double combo

Women's lightweight double Louise Ayling and Lucy Strack are expected to qualify for the Olympics at the world champs. Photo / Christine Cornege

One of the more eye-catching moments of last November's world championships came from an unexpected quarter.

When Louise Ayling won the silver medal in the lightweight single at Lake Karapiro it was greeted with both delight and surprise.

At the same regatta, Lucy Strack and Julia Edward impressed in making the final in the lightweight double, which unlike the single, is an Olympic Games event.

This year, at the selection trials Ayling eased Edward out of the double and last night the Southlander and Nelsonian Strack raced their heat at the World Cup regatta in Lucerne.

The new combination have put up encouraging times in training. Hopes are high for them qualifying for the London Games when they contest the world championships in Slovenia at the end of next month.

They need to make the top eight to qualify the boat, and should do so comfortably.

Ayling, clearly has talent and a fierce desire to succeed.

She began rowing at James Hargest College in Invercargill in Year 9 and hasn't looked back. It culminated in her silver medal performance, which in a sense was a stepping stone for the 23-year-old.

"At the start of the year I didn't know if I could do it or not, but I thought I'd give it absolutely everything," she said.

Ayling admitted to surprising herself at the worlds.

"I think it was the unknown of not knowing how fast I was actually going. I didn't have anything to base my training numbers off."

Ayling, has finished the first year of a bachelor of business studies extramurally at Massey University, but rowing is top priority for now.

The single seat silver medal, allied to strong trials form, catapulted her into the double and a big step closer to an Olympic Games spot.

"Now it's time to show we are worth it," she said of the challenge ahead of Strack and herself.

"In the beginning we were still getting to know each other.

"We had done racing against each other but now we've developed a friendship and most days we can have a laugh about things and talk to each other pretty easily."

Ayling said it took a bit of time to get the combination to "feel like it's an old pair of shoes. Now it feels great and we've got high expectations with how the boat feels".

Rowing New Zealand high performance boss Alan Cotter liked what has been seen from the combination.

"They've been working out really well, and we've got a good group of girls in behind that," he said.

"There's maybe six women at lightweight who could go in those two seats, so it's competitive and they've got to be on their game. People are knocking on the door."

New Zealand had three wins and two seconds from their first five events when the World Cup regatta began on the Rotsee course in Lucerne last night.

Lightweight single sculler Duncan Grant and the two world champion coxless pair combinations, Rebecca Scown and Juliette Haigh, and Eric Murray and Hamish Bond won their heats comfortably enough.

Grant was second fastest overall in 7min 09.17s to advance to his semifinal. Scown and Haigh clocked 7:15.01 and moved into a semifinal, while Murray and Bond have a quarter-final early today, having won in 6:29.47.

Lightweight men's coxless pair Graham Oberlin-Brown and James Lassche were secone in their heat, and consigned to a repechage, as were double scullers Anna Reymer and Fiona Patterson.

They were second to Australians Kerry Hore and Kim Crow, who were almost 7s ahead at the line.