Rowing: Tonks in for long haul

Super coach Richard Tonks has been secured by Rowing New Zealand through to the Beijing Olympics, with the national body confident of securing his services through to London 2012.

Tonks' market value has shot through the roof since last week, when he coached the Evers-Swindell twins, Georgina and Caroline, the women's pair of Juliette Haigh and Nicky Coles and single-sculler Mahe Drysdale to gold in Gifu, Japan.

That supplemented an already stellar reputation for getting the best out of his charges. Immediately Rowing New Zealand chief executive Craig Ross moved to allay fears Tonks could be poached for cash-rich programmes, most notably in Great Britain.

"We've got Dick contracted through to the end of Beijing, with a right of renewal for another four years through to London," Ross said.

"Certainly there's more to it than contract arrangements and financial rewards.

"The key for Dick is his passion for New Zealand rowing and his love for the sport. I guess it makes it lot easier in that he lost a lot of sweat as a rower when he was an oarsman.

"I can tell you that Dick would have great difficulty standing alongside another national flag." New Zealand has exported coaches before, notably the late Harry Mahon who achieved great things at Cambridge.

Ross acknowledged there was a limited pool of top coaches in the world and Tonks was a legitimate target.

"We've scoured the market for coaches in the past. If you're a country that doesn't have those resources you have to scout out what's available," Ross said.

"He is the best."

Both were beside the river in Hamilton yesterday for the Great Race regatta, watching the Waikato team, with world champion Nathan Twaddle on board, beat the vaunted US crew from Washington University. "It was significant, actually," race director Rob Hamill said.

"Washington beat everyone in the indoor competition the other night and every year the team that has won on the machines have gone on to win on the river, so we were very nervous."

The University of Waikato women's eight, which included the Evers-Swindell twins, Haigh and Coles, were too strong for the Australian national eight, winning convincingly.

Downstream, the Australian men's eight were too good for the Waikato eight that had three of the national coxless fours team and Drysdale aboard.

- HERALD ON SUNDAY