KEY POINTS:
Three gold medals, three silvers and some dented reputations told the Kiwi story of the World Cup regatta that ended in Amsterdam yesterday.
The men's coxless four and pair emerged victorious, as did lightweight single sculler Duncan Grant, who pipped Storm Uru in a one-two finish for New
Zealand in their final.
The other silvers went to the women's pair of Juliette Haigh and Nicky Coles and the women's double sculls crew of twins Georgina and Caroline Evers-Swindell, both beaten by Chinese crews.
With limited time together in the build-up, the Olympic champion twins could not keep pace with technically superb Qin Li and Liang Tian.
Even more surprising was the sight of two-time world champion Mahe Drysdale managing only fourth in a high-quality men's single sculls final.
Rowing New Zealand high performance manager Andrew Matheson was heartened by the medal haul but said it was expected that some competitors would be below their best less than a week after arriving in Europe.
He said their programmes were all tailored towards improving at the next World Cup meet at Lucerne in three weeks and then peaking for the world championships at Munich, starting on August 26.
"These results are a pretty good benchmark of where we're at now," said Matheson.
"When we look at the whole campaign in its entirety, the critical thing is Munich.
"Each crew will come up a bit and we've got enough data from World Cups over the last three to four years to know where we need to be."
Matheson said the performances of the women's pair and the mens pair of George Bridgewater and Nathan Twaddle were particularly pleasing as both were well off the pace at the same stage last year.
"Twelve months ago, the women couldn't even make the final and here they are challenging with a really fast time for the win," he said.
"They looked pretty comfortable with what they're doing. They haven't done any speed work yet so I thought it was a top performance."
A blistering finish from the men's four of Hamish Bond, Eric Murray, James Dallinger and Carl Meyer saw them catch the fancied Netherlands and win by just 0.36s.
The world-class British were not in Amsterdam but that did not bother Meyer, who has endured several near-misses at World cups.
"After four to five years it's bloody good," he said.
"It was a gutsy row, a good finish. I'm bloody happy. We can go onwards from here hopefully."
Matheson described the duel between Grant and Uru as "sensational". The two World Cup regattas are being used as a trial to find one candidate to line up at Munich.
Grant finished three seconds clear of Uru, the world under-23 champion.
"This is what we expected to happen; they're bringing the best out of each other," Matheson said.
He believed the Evers-Swindell sisters had ample room for improvement. "They've had a few injury issues and I thought it was a pretty solid performance and will give them a lot of confidence.
"They're getting back to the speed they had 18 months ago."
The men's double scull of Joseph Sullivan - a late replacement for the injured Matthew Trott - and Nathan Cohen were fifth.
The Kiwis were to return to their Belgium training base in Hazewinkel to prepare for Lucerne.
- NZPA
