No export gold but silver, bronze lining

BRONZE AGE: Robbie Manson and Wanganui's Chris Harris with their hard-earned bronze medals from the men's double sculls at the world championships in France.PHOTO/SUPPLIED 070915WCSUP01

IT WAS three more medals in the space of 30 minutes for the Wanganui exports in the New Zealand squad at the 2015 World Rowing Championships in Aiguebelette, France, overnight Sunday.

Starting about 11.30pm on Sunday, Aramoho-Wanganui Rowing Club original Chris Harris and his men's double-sculls partner, Robbie Manson, completed a whirlwind seven days with a bronze medal in the A Final.

With Harris on stroke and Manson at the bow, the Kiwis fought hard with the second-placed Lithuanian crew and eventual fourth-placed Germans, while the race was being led from start to finish by the Croatian pair.

Starting third, New Zealand dropped back to fourth over the 1000m to 1500m section, but had the wood on the Germans on the final push to the line.

Harris and Manson finished in 6m 6.73s, with Croatia winning in 6m 3.33s and Lithuania runners-up in 6m 5.31s.

Back in the heats, New Zealand finished second to France in 6m 10.46s then, on September 3 they won their quarter-final in 6m 17.1s, on a day when conditions pushed all the crews into slower times.

Harris and Manson's A semifinal was by far the more exciting of the two as they fought to second behind the winning Croatians, before being caught by the Australians in the final 500m.

Finishing in 6m 12.66s, the New Zealanders missed second right at the line, by just 0.32s and only held off the Italians by 0.3s themselves.

Therefore, it is noteworthy that in the A final, Harris and Manson finished ahead of both the Australian combination and the French pairing.

The roll continued half an hour later as Union Boat Club's Rebecca Scown took the stroke of the women's eight, with AWRC's Kerri Gowler in the No6 seat, after winning silver the day before in the women's pair with Grace Prendergast.

The Kiwis took silver from the six-boat A final, finishing fast in 6m 8.52s, behind the United States team who claimed the gold medal in 6m 5.65s.

Sitting last after 500m, the New Zealanders passed the Russian crew by the halfway mark, then ran down the Netherlands, Great Britain and Canada over the final 500m sprint, although too much room had been left for the Americans.

It gave Gowler and Prendergast their second silvers of the championships and justified pulling double duty, while Scown continued her streak of world championship and Olympic medals, which stretches back to 2009.

The locals' success did not continue for Wanganui expat Sarah Gray, now representing Waikato, in the women's quadruple sculls.

Gray's crew made the A final but finished sixth in 6m 39.3s, missing a guaranteed spot for the crew at the Rio Olympics by one place.

New Zealand finished fourth in their heat in 6m 22.12s to be the last qualifier for the six-boat final and, although getting up to fourth by the 500m mark, they could not maintain their position and finished off the pace.

Meanwhile, there has been more success on the national scene as former Wanganui and Nga Tawa rower Georgia Nugent-O'Leary, 19, teamed up with 17-year-old Bella Cordwell, of Wellington, to win in the pairs coxless fours and women's eights at the recent under-21 regatta between New Zealand and Australia at Lake Karapiro. New Zealand beat Australia easily overall.