New Zealand crews made a good start to the under-23 world rowing championships in Trakai, Lithuania, last night (NZT), with the women's pair of Kayla Pratt and Kelsey Bevan blitzing their race to qualify for the A final and the men's coxed four coming a close second to also qualifyfor the final.
Pratt and Bevan won by a colossal 18 seconds ahead of Norway, the US, Latvia and Hungary in a rare demonstration of dominance at international level. The led by nearly six seconds after 500m and cruised to the win.
They now head to the A final where it looks like it will be a straight fight for gold with the British pair, who also won comfortably in a slightly quicker time.
The men's coxed four qualified directly to the A final after a tight battle with the US. The crews were overlapping throughout with the Kiwis leading through each of the 500m, 1000m and 1500m markers and under pressure from another fast four from France. The US got their noses ahead, however, in the final sprint for the line but second was good enough for the Kiwi crew to progress to the A final.
The men's coxless four, women's quadruple scull and women's four all finished outside of the automatic A final qualification places and will head to the repechages.
