Rowing: Weed worries sisters on golden charge

By DANIEL GILHOOLY

Having overcome heat and headwinds, another natural phenomenon - seaweed - is providing the only real headache for Georgina and Caroline Evers-Swindell as they prepare to row for Olympic gold on Saturday.

The Cambridge sisters confirmed their status as the hottest of favourites by blitzing the other nine crews in the double sculls heats at the Schinias course on Saturday.

They were the only New Zealand boat to qualify directly for the final. The men's pair won their heat and the four were second, but that was only good enough to reach the semifinals on Wednesday because of the greater number of crews in both their classes.

Women's singles sculler Sonia Waddell and pair Nicky Coles and Juliette Haigh were scheduled to be in repechages this evening (NZT) but racing was last night cancelled due to expected bad weather.

The pair head to the repechage in embarrassing style, falling from their boat, recovering and finishing nearly two minutes behind the field.

There was no such problem for the twice world champion Evers-Swindells, although they were nearly late to the start line after frantically clearing weed away from their hull.

Coach Dick Tonks said weed at the starting area created a potentially devastating problem.

"The girls had a lot of trouble with it. They had to rake the water with their hands and chuck weed out of the way. They nearly didn't make the start."

Manager James Sheehan and officials from two other teams complained to the world body Fisa after the session, but he wasn't confident of a swift response.

"Unfortunately going to Fisa is like taking it to the dunny door sometimes. Nothing happens with haste."

In difficult conditions, the time of 7m 25.57s was relatively slow.

Despite temperatures of 35C, it was the unpredictable nature of the wind that Tonks said was more influential.

"We've had just about every wind you can here - crosswinds, fraction of a tail and then it swings round.

"At least the water conditions have been good; there's not a lot of water coming over the bow."

Tonks was particularly impressed with pair Nathan Twaddle and George Bridgewater, who held off a strong-finishing Canadian crew to win in the quickest time, 6m 54.75s.

Australians James Tomkins and Drew Ginn, the gold medal favourites, were 0.29s slower in winning another heat.

"It looked like they were going to drift out a little bit and the next thing you know they're out in front and looking really strong," Tonks said of the rapidly improving pair.

"Young George is rowing the best I've ever seen him."

The four of Donald Leach, Mahe Drysdale, Carl Meyer and Eric Murray were also impressive, narrowly losing a fascinating battle with Australia, both crews leaving the higher-rated Germans behind.

- NZPA