Rowing's future steps up

James Lassche (L) and Graham Oberlin-Brown stepped up to take silver behind the French at Lake Karapiro. Photo / Christine Cornege

The future of New Zealand rowing stood tall yesterday with a silver and two bronze medals from six A finals at the world championships.

The lightweight men's coxless pair of James Lassche and Graham Oberlin-Brown were delighted with their silver, trailing only world champion Frenchmen Fabien Tilliet and Jean-Christophe Bette.

The men's coxless four nabbed a gutsy bronze, squeezing out the world champion British quartet in the closing stages. And Storm Uru and Peter Taylor - by contrast with the other two crews, the old men of the medal winners at 25 and 26 respectively - took bronze in their lightweight double scull final.

Those three crews looked best placed of the six to deliver medals yesterday, and ensured New Zealand had a solid presence on the podium.

Unlike the other combinations, Uru and Taylor were shattered.

As defending champions, they'd figured they could beat Olympic champions Zac Purchase and Mark Hunter. But on the water there was no argument; the Brits were outstanding in difficult cross-wind conditions and won by 2.5s from Italians Lorenzo Bertini and Elia Luini, with the Kiwis 2.43s further on.

Indeed Uru and Taylor had to scrap for bronze, pipping Canadians Douglas Vandor and Cameron Sylvester by just .03s.

Taylor was shattered at the finish. "I don't know where I was, I was just stuffed.

"To get third is a little hard to swallow but I'm mighty proud of our effort out there," Taylor said.

The conditions were tricky and the lanes beyond the grandstand and embankment had the worst of it. New Zealand were among those crews, but Taylor had no complaint.

"It's just what they are. You just do the best you can."

Purchase and Hunter were chuffed, taking last year off but now regaining their status at the top.

"This year has been so hard, that was probably the hardest challenge, getting to race fitness," Hunter said.

"Definitely no more time off."

The London Olympics are firmly in their sights. "It's always in the back of our minds," Hunter added.

As it is for Taylor and Uru.

"We'll take this on board and learn from it. If we don't learn we're not going to become Olympic champions," Taylor said.

Lassche is 21, Oberlin-Brown 22. They were sixth in the lightweight four at the under-23 world champs in Belarus in July. Talk about stepping up to the plate.

They had beaten Tilliet and Bette in Sunday's heat, and gave it a decent lash yesterday. They were marginally in front at halfway and the lead swung back and forth for a time before the French eased clear to win in 7min 18.92s, up 2.37s on the New Zealanders, with a further 2.5s back to Canada.

"We're very happy," Lassche said. "Obviously we would have liked to beat the French, but they were just too strong in that last 500.

"For 10 weeks worth of work we're very happy with how far we've come."

And that's the key. This is a fresh pair, who have made huge strides in a short time.

Oberlin-Brown, world under 23 lightweight single champion in 2008 and 2009, spoke of the determination to make an impact on the home crowd after that sixth in Belarus.

"It gave us a huge drive to come here to home water and not be outdone in front of our home crowd."

The coxless four - Simon Watson, Jade Uru, Hamish Burson and David Eade - are all 23 or 22. They'd qualified fastest for their final but found the French and Greek quartets just too good.

But there was big satisfaction in nabbing the Brits in the final 100m, pushing them off the podium in one of their favoured events. They crossed .64s up on Britain, 1.23s behind the Greeks.

"It's been an exciting ride. Now we've got to follow on next year," Uru said, holding the same coloured medal as his older brother.

They're looking forward to a three-week break.

"Then it's back into training and another lot of trials. It just gives us the hunger to work more."

The men's double scullers, Nathan Cohen and Joseph Sullivan, won their semifinal to move into tomorrow's final but there was bad news for lightweight single sculler Duncan Grant. Chasing his fourth world title, he bombed badly in his semifinal to cross fourth, with the first three making the final.

There are four finals involving New Zealand today - the big ticket items of men's coxless pair (Hamish Bond and Eric Murray) and single scull (Mahe Drysdale), along with women's coxless pair (Juliette Haigh and Rebecca Scown) and single scull (Emma Twigg).

Of the other three finalists, Lucy Strack and Julia Edward finished sixth in the lightweight double sculls as did the women's quad, while the women's coxless four were fourth in a four-crew field.