Rowing: Kiwi crew eye more improvement after World Cup win

NZ pair Eric Murray (L) and Hamish Bond held off their highly-rated British rivals in Slovenia today. Photo / Christine Cornege

New Zealand rower Eric Murray says there is plenty left in the tank for a world championship defence, after he and Hamish Bond held off their highly-rated British rivals for a World Cup pairs victory in Bled, Slovenia today.

Murray and Bond took the early honours in their duel with British pair Andrew Triggs Hodge and Peter Reed, winning the final by 1.22 seconds in 6 minutes 33.30 seconds.

It moved Murray to an intriguing comparison as they begin a measured preparation under coach Richard Tonks for the world championships on Lake Karapiro in October.

"It's a bit like in Once Were Warriors when Jake the Muss beats that guy up and says `too much weights, not enough speed work'. We've done a lot of kilometres but we haven't really done any sprint work," Murray told Radio Sport.

"Once we get that sprint work under our belts we'll get another gear at the start and finish of the race. Our middle 1000m at the moment is just dominant. We don't really need to do that until the last four weeks building up to the world championship, not until October."

The pair were fourth at the 500m mark of the 2000m race, but drove to the lead at the halfway point and were never headed.

Murray said it was important to keep their hold over the British pair who were part of the gold medal four in Beijing in 2008.

"They've got a passion to try and win the pair and they keep going at it. That's their goal to win this pairs race so they're going to stay in it so we're going to have to get faster and ensure they don't get as close as they did today."

Murray said the venue, which will host next year's world championships, was excellent although the wash from a concrete wall made conditions tricky. He said their experience on choppy Lake Karapiro stood them in good stead.

Their new boat, a state-of-the-art Empacher from southwest Germany, also got the thumbs up.

The manufacturer carried nine of the 14 gold medallists at the Beijing Olympics and 13 of the 22 gold medallists at last year's world championships.

"We'd love to be rowing in a New Zealand-made boat to show our patriotism, but we've got a brand new boat over here, it's got so many results behind it and we're just happy to be rowing in the best equipment. All the other crews are racing in the same boat, so we've got to be up with them."

Single sculler Emma Twigg also put up a highly creditable performance, leading for most of her final before being outgunned right at the end by Belarussian legend Ekaterina Karsten who held a margin of 2.17sec.

Twigg held off the third-placed Chinese rower by more than 4sec.

"It's a good first race to launch the season. I've tried to be in front of the race but Karsten was strong," Twigg said.

"I think it's possible to beat her, but it's necessary to train harder and harder."

- NZPA