KEY POINTS:
Reigning world single sculls champion Mahe Drysdale pulled off a trademark come-from-behind win in his final at the World Cup regatta in Lucerne last night.
The 28-year-old signalled he is ready to defend his title at the world championships in Munich next month with a withering finish in
the final 400m to hold off the challenge of Great Britain's Alan Campbell and the Czech Republic's Ondrej Synek.
It was a huge spike in form for Drysdale, who missed a podium finish at an international event for the first time at the world cup regatta in Amsterdam last month.
Drysdale told the Herald early today that he had made a big breakthrough with his speedwork in recent days and being in touch through the second half of the race gave him that vital platform to mount his attack.
"I had to be in touch, something I lacked in Amsterdam. When I got to the 1000m and could see Synek I knew I could do it."
He said he found that "magic" again.
"It feels like the start to where I'm going; that's why I'm so stoked to get the win - working on my speedwork for four days and it's already paid off."
Drysdale, racing in lane three, went across the line in 6m 45.65s, Campbell was a canvas back in 6m 45.94 and Synek finished in 6m 47.28s.
It completed a great finals performance for New Zealand after wins to Caroline and Georgina Evers-Swindell in the double sculls, Juliette Haigh and Nicky Coles in the coxless pair and Duncan Grant in the lightweight single sculls.
At Amsterdam, the Evers-Swindells were beaten into second by the formidable Chinese pair.
But yesterday the 2004 Olympic champions and three-times world champs took advantage of their Chinese rivals' absence from the Rotsee course to turn in a hot display to match the weather.
The Hawkes Bay twins, also in lane three, were in front at the 500m mark, had a canvas lead at halfway and were untroubled to ease across the finish line in 6m 58.45s.
Germany's No 1 crew of Peggy Waleska and Christiane Huth were second 2.11s back, with Italians Francesca Schiavone and Elisabetta Sancassani third, pipping Britain by just .01s.
The New Zealanders kept China in their mind as they sculled to victory, with a spot of mental visualisation.
"We did think about them being out there and imagined them being a length in front of us," Caroline Evers-Swindell said.
"There was no lacking motivation when you think how much we got kicked by the Chinese in Amsterdam. It's been a tough last four weeks of training but it's nice to know we're on the right track."
Coles and Haigh, who had also taken silver in Amsterdam, stepped up impressively in lane three also, to comfortably hold off United States pair Megan Cooke and Anna Mickelson.
The New Zealanders, silver medallists at last year's world champs in Eton, were second at 500m but eased away at the 1000m mark.
They too had been beaten by a Chinese combination in Amsterdam and, as with the Evers-Swindells, know the Chinese will be back for the worlds in Munich, which double as the Olympic qualifying regatta for Beijing next year.
Still, this was an encouraging display which won't hurt their confidence ahead of Munich.
Grant led from start to finish to clinch his spot at the worlds, clocking 6m 58.96s. He held off fellow Kiwi Storm Uru, who was second to Grant at the Amsterdam cup regatta last month as well, with Dutchman Jaap Schouten coming home fast for third.
Uru recorded 7m 04.01s and now heads back to the New Zealand squad's base at Hazewinkel in Belgium to join the national under-23 squad preparing for their world champs at Strathclyde in Scotland, where Uru will be defending his title.
Australian coxless pair Drew Ginn and Duncan Free held off New Zealand's Nathan Twaddle and George Bridgewater, in a repeat of their world champs finishing order last year.
Twaddle and Bridgewater were sluggish out of the blocks, 5th at the 500m, but sliced through the field while never looking likely to peg back the Australians. Ginn and Free won in 6m 27.31s, 1.83s ahead of the Kiwis.
The coxless four of stroke Hamish Bond, Eric Murray, James Dallinger and Carl Meyer finished third in their final, clocking 5m 52.19s behind winners the Netherlands (5m 51.48s) and reigning world and Olympic champions Great Britain who finished in 5m 52.05s.
The New Zealanders had caused the upset of the regatta when they won their semifinal, inflicting a first loss for the British crew in 27 major regattas. Bond said the semifinal win might have taken a little bit out of the crew for the final and they felt like they left themselves too much to do at the finish.
"We shouldn't have got into that position. We want to make sure we're sprinting from first place, not third," he said.
Nathan Cohen and Matthew Trott were third at halfway in the men's double sculls final before slipping to a highly commendable fourth in 6m 22.53s, 4.9s behind the all-the-way winners Tonu Endrekson and Jueri Jaanson of Estonia, who surprised the field from lane six.
In the lightweight double sculls, Graham Oberlin-Brown and Peter Taylor were second in the B final, 0.18s behind the Greek pair.
The men's eight were fourth in their B final in 5m 43.31s, 4.14s behind the winning Swiss.