Rowing: Women's eight fight for London chance

Paula Twining (fourth from left) in the 2007 women's eight. Photo / Sarah Ivey

The future of the New Zealand women's eight could very much hinge on their performance at the world championships in Karapiro next week, as selectors weigh up their prospects for the London Olympics.

The reduced cost of racing at home and the chance to blood athletes ahead of the qualification year for the London Olympics encouraged Rowing New Zealand to fill 13 of the 14 Olympic boat categories for the regatta.

The last time New Zealand had women's eight in the water was back in 2007, when they attempted to qualify for the Beijing Games.

Paula Twining is the only member of that team from three years ago competing in the eight at Karapiro - Fiona Paterson, Emma Feathery (double sculls) and Rebecca Scown (women's pair) have all moved on to smaller-crewed boats.

And as one of the experienced heads in the young team, Twining knows the pressure is on the team to prove their potential in Karapiro.

She said a strong performance would be needed next week to convince selectors it was worth campaigning the eight next year. The team need to finish in the top five at the 2011 world championships in Bled, Slovenia, to qualify for London.

"[The selectors] haven't really specified too much, but if we can pull out a good performance in Karapiro I guess they'll look at putting an eight in next year so we can try and qualify for London."

Having failed to make the grade for Beijing, Twining has unfinished business in the eights, and this time she believes the crew have what it takes to qualify.

Four of the crew racing in Karapiro - Jess Loe, Tarsha Williams, Kelsey Bevan and Francie Turner - were in the eight that won silver at the under-23 world championships this year and Twining believes the team's youth makes them a brilliant long-term prospect.

"Looking forward I think we've definitely got a strong future if we can get this eight pumping for London. There's a lot of great young talent in the squad."

But with the women's eight a priority for many top rowing nations, it is an extremely competitive event.

The American crew are the defending champions and will be the team to watch in Karapiro after dominating the World Cup events. The Dutch and Romanians always put out strong crews and the Canadians have also shown strong form in the lead-up to the regatta.

Twining admits achieving their goal of making the 'A' final will be a huge challenge.

"It's a very strong field, and it's a priority sweep boat for most countries, so they put their best rowers in there," she said.

"A lot of countries also double up so they put their best pair rowers in the eight and they also row the pair. We just row one event each."

* * *

New Zealand women's eight

Harriet Austin, Tarsha Williams, Kelsey Bevan, Jessica Loe, Paula Twining, Beatrice Heaphy-Hall, Robyn Munro, Louise Trappitt, Francie Turner (cox).