Emma Twigg says the success of New Zealand's male rowers sets a benchmark to aspire to. Photo / AP
Three out of four of the New Zealand crews raced themselves into semifinals on the fourth day of competition at the World Rowing Championships in Amsterdam.
In the repechages of the women's double sculls Zoe Stevenson and Fiona Bourke's efforts yielded a first placing which nailed a semifinal spot for
them. The New Zealand duo required a top two placing to keep their world championship dreams alive and clocked in a time of 7:23.33, with the Russian crew taking the second qualification spot.
From the other two repechages the United States, Ireland, Germany and Ukraine also advanced to the semifinals.
Lithuanian sculler Mindaugaus Griskonis led New Zealand's Mahe Drysdale in the men's single scull quarter-final for the first half of the 2000m race, shortly after passing the halfway mark Drysdale took control. With a top three finish required to advance to the semifinal, Drysdale kept pushing through to a comfortable winning margin over the Lithuanian, who finished second and the French sculler Francesco Cardaioli who was third. Drysdale's winning time was 7:09.68.
New Zealander Emma Twigg was competing against the Olympic Champion Czech sculler Mirka Knapkova and China's Jingli Duan, these three scullers commanded the field to claim the top three spots in the first quarter-final of the women's single scull. The three boat race saw Twigg taking the lead early and she continued to build on her boat speed as the race carried on finishing first in 7:48.84. China's Jingli Duan claimed the second placing just over three seconds back to 7:51.99, while Knapkova grabbed the final qualifying position.
