Rowing: Kiwi success continues at World Cup

Kiwi sculler Zoe McBride has taken out another world cup title in Lucerne overnight. Photo / Getty

New Zealand's rowers have earned two medals and will race 12 further finals after the second day of the season's third World Cup in Lucerne.

Zoe McBride took gold and Adam Ling bronze in the non-Olympic lightweight single sculls. That's an entrée to what shapes as a feast of medals tomorrow.

McBride has a promising future. The 19-year-old set a world-best time in the class at the previous World Cup at Varese and reinforced her pedigree today. Fellow New Zealander Jackie Kiddle finished fourth in the same race.

"It was nice to build on the last World Cup to see what else I could find to perfect my race," McBride said. "This has given me a lot of confidence stepping up to elite rowing."

At the other end of the spectrum, Mahe Drysdale secured a place in his 18th single sculls World Cup final with a dominant semi-final victory. He said McBride's achievement indicated the overall competitiveness of the squad.

"The younger rowers are reaching the top level a lot faster than when I was a younger athlete [Drysdale is 36].

"Having the junior and under-23 programmes at Karapiro competing against the best athletes in world has added another level of competition. The fact Zoe can set a world best time but is yet to make an Olympic class boat says a lot."

While not necessarily a headline candidate, the finals qualification of the men's and women's eights marks significant new ground as Rowing New Zealand plans to expand their success in smaller boats to those with four or more bodies.

The achievement's understood to be a New Zealand first for both eights at a World Cup regatta. It further endorses the board decision to invest in eights until the 2020 Olympics as a way to keep top talent in the sport beyond the secondary school-level Maadi Cup.

The men finished fourth in their repechage, behind the Netherlands, Poland and Australia, to guarantee a finals spot. The accent of coxswain Caleb Shepherd echoed across the Rotsee at the 1500m mark.

"You can do this," he bellowed. They did.

The women's eight repechage spoke volumes for New Zealand's standing, by virtue of their absence. They qualified in the heats with Canada. Britain, Romania, Australia and Netherlands edged out Germany for the final four spots.

Five eights in each gender will earn Olympic berths at next month's world championships in Aiguebelette, France.

Elsewhere, single sculler Fiona Bourke made a significant improvement. The incumbent double sculls world champion went from 14th (second in the 'C' final) at the second World Cup to reaching the final. She finished third, beating Denmark's Fie Udby Erichsen, the incumbent Olympic silver medallist, by 3.32s. As a mark of respect she received applause from coach Dick Tonks on her return to the boat park.

"Dick doesn't have any magic bullets. He just advised me to race in my own boat and own lane rather than worrying about the daunting girls I was up against," Bourke said.

"A lot of it comes down to experience and time in the boat. It's my first time rowing outside a crew boat on the international stage, which can be pretty brutal.

"You're on your own and responsible for everything. Being a world champion in one event doesn't necessarily give you an advantage in another. As a new kid on the block, at the bottom of the heap, it's been daunting."

Bourke's tenacity paid off.

"I knew the race would be long [into a headwind]. Coming into the last 500m I was fourth but thought 'I can give this a nudge'. I had confidence that I've done the kilometres in training and the fitness would be there if I needed it."

The men's lightweight double and coxless four missed their respective finals.