Rowing: NZ dominate in Hamburg

Mahe Drysdale. Photo / Getty Images

New Zealand's rowers are looking for a tougher test at next month's third leg of the World Cup after dominating proceedings at a weakened Hamburg round on the weekend.

They delivered a gold-plated showing at Hamburg last night, harvesting five gold medals from eight finals the team contested.

Several top European crews did not attend the event because of the e-coli scare in Germany.

New Zealand's gold medals came through the men's and women's pairs, the men's double scull, the lightweight men's double scull and Mahe Drysdale in the men's single scull.

The team took two silvers and a bronze from the other finals they contested, adding to the silver medal won by Duncan Grant in the men's lightweight single scull on Saturday.

The world champion men's pair of Eric Murray and Hamish Bond were arguably the most impressive performers.

They took a huge lead in the first 500m and won by a whopping 14 seconds - or about 80m - from the German pair of Maximilian Munski and Felix Drahotta, who got up at the death to claim second ahead of the third-placed South African crew.

"It was a great race because we won. We are happy with the result. We've never raced here before and it's just a shame other nations pulled out because of the health risks," Murray said.

The women's world champion pair of Juliette Haigh and Rebecca Scown were almost as dominant, leading from start to finish as they eased to a 5sec victory over the South African pair of Naydene Smith and Lee-Ann Persse.

"It was a difficult race and not very tidy. It's our first race in the World Cup Series, so were are happy with the result. We are looking for more competition," Scown said.

The men's double scull world champions Nathan Cohen and Joseph Sullivan got their 2011 campaign off to a great start as well, making it a trifecta from the first three A finals with another wire to wire victory despite being pushed by the Argentinian crew of Ariel Suarez and Cristian Rosso, who faded toward the end to finish second, 3sec behind the New Zealanders.

"I am happy with my race. It is my first time here in Hamburg. I am looking forward to Lucerne where they'll be more competition," Cohen said.

Peter Taylor and Storm Uru, the 2009 lightweight double scull world champions, started slowly in their final but wound into gear after the first 500m to power away in the final stages and finish nearly 3sec ahead of the Chinese duo of Fangbang Zhang and Tiexin Wang.

Drysdale put the icing on the cake of a stellar morning session in Hamburg to blitz the field in the men's single scull final.

The four-time world champion was keen to test a new training regime designed to help protect his problematic back and he will surely be pleased with the result, although it should be noted some of his main rivals did not attend the event.

Drysdale was too slick from the outset and ended with a 4.54sec advantage over Swede Lassi Karonen, with German Falco Nolte third.

The men's four, with Ben Hammond and Chris Harris from last year's promising eight joining 2007 world champions James Dallinger and Carl Meyer, made a superb debut, pipping Belarus into the silver medal position after a powerful late surge over the final 500m.

The New Zealanders finished less than 2sec behind the favoured German crew of Eric Johannesen, Andreas Kuffner, Richard Schmidt and Kristof Wilke.

Women's single sculler Emma Twigg rowed a brave race, pushing Belarussian favourite Ekaterina Karsten all the way before settling for the silver medal as she finished 2sec off the pace.

The New Zealand crew of Sarah Gray, Fiona Bourke, Louise Trappitt and Eve MacFarlane won bronze in the women's quadruple sculls final, finishing 9sec behind winners Germany after the hosts hauled in the quick-starting Ukraine outfit over the second half of the race.

The next round is in Lucerne, Switzerland from July 8-11.

- NZPA