Rowing: Whanganui's Kerri and Jackie Gowler win gold at World Championships in Austria

Grace Prendergast and Kerri Gowler after winning the gold medal in the Women's Pairs final during day seven of the 2019 World Rowing Championships in Austria. Photos by Getty Images.

Aramoho Whanganui Rowing Club export Kerri Gowler and her women's pairs partner Grace Prendergast are back on top of the world after double gold at the 2019 world championships in Austria at the weekend.

It was a great weekend for the Gowler family as oldest sibling Kerri got to share her women's eight gold medal with sister Jackie.

Competing at Linz-Ottensheim, the 2017 gold medallists Kerri Gowler and Prendergast were looking to get on top of the podium after settling for silver last year in Bulgaria behind the impressive Canadian pair of Caileigh Filmer and Hillary Janssess.

This time, the Kiwis trailed the Australian boat Jessica Morrison and Annabelle McIntyre for the first 1500m, before powering home to win by over two seconds in 7m 21.35s.

Morrison and McIntyre held on for silver in 7m 23.62s, while Filmer and Janssess had moved from fourth to third after the opening 500m, but could not catch either of the crews from Down Under, getting bronze in 7m 26.52s.

Gowler and Prendergast were the first of the New Zealanders on the podium, late on Saturday night, as part of a strong regatta which help lift the tally of Kiwi boats qualified for 2020 Tokyo Olympics to nine.

"We worked really hard for this. I think that was the closest race I've ever been in, which made it even more special," Prendergast said.

"I think it came down to sticking to our race plan and trusting ourselves."

After the women's pair victory on Saturday, NZ time, the following day they climbed into the women's eight boat with Jackie Gowler, who was on stroke, for another gold medal win achieved by passing the leading Australians in the final 500m.

The New Zealanders were in fourth after 500m, but moved up to second behind the Aussie boat for the next two sections before powering ahead in the final 500m to win in 5m 56.91s, just under three seconds clear of the silver medallists (5m 59.63s).

The bronze went to the United States in 6m 1.93s, having held third from start to finish.

It completed an excellent season for Kerri Gowler and Prendergast, who won gold and silver at the earlier World Cup regattas, while also winning World Cup gold in the women's eight with Jackie.

The rest of the women's eight crew in Austria were bow Ella Greenslade, Emma Dyke, Lucy Spoors, Kelsey Bevan, Elizabeth Ross and cox Caleb Shepherd.

The victorious women's eight including Kerri Gowler, fourth from the right, and sister Jackie Gowler, second from right, at their gold medal ceremony.

Austria also represented a big comeback for the New Zealand rowing programme, especially from the women, who had their best ever results at a world championships.

In Bulgaria last year, the New Zealanders collectively won only a silver medal and two bronze to finish down the table in 18th.

This time, four golds and two silvers had them at the top of the pecking order, ahead of Italy (three gold, 10 medals) and the People's Republic of China (three gold, four medals).

Unfortunately, there would not be another medal for a fellow AWRC representative as Chris Harris and his men's double sculls partner John Storey, the 2017 world champs and 2018 bronze medallists, had finished fifth in their semifinal.

Going into the B Final, Harris and Storey came up from third to just finish second by only 0.02s to the Netherlands crew, who won in 6m 19.55s, ahead of the Kiwis 6m 19.57s.

The medallists in the A Final were the crews from China, Ireland and Poland respectively.
Harris and Storey's effort was still enough to qualify their boat for Tokyo 2020.

As well as Gowler's and Prendergast gold medals, Brooke Donoghue and Olivia Loe triumphed in the women's double sculls — also getting back to the top of the podium after their 2017 gold was followed by bronze last year.

The women's lightweight double sculls crew of Jackie Kiddie and Zoe McBride dominated their A Final to win the gold by over four seconds.

Silver medals came from Emma Twigg in the women's singles sculls, to go with the only men's medal from the pair of Thomas Murray and Michael Brake.

The news was gloomier for the men's eight, who finished sixth in their final and missed out on qualification for the Tokyo by 0.5 of a second.

There are two final qualifying spots available in the last-chance regatta in Lucerne this coming May, but it is uncertain whether Rowing NZ will send boats to Switzerland.

The two all-stars in the eight's boat are Olympic gold medallists Hamish Bond and Mahe Drysdale, although they both may now consider another option, as the men's singles sculls boat has qualified for Tokyo.

Robbie Manson, the former partner of Harris, managed to win his B Final, but given he did not make it into the medal race it is likely he will be challenged for the spot at the New Zealand selection trials next year.