Time for some lesser lights to show out at World Cups

New Zealand’s approach to this year’s European rowing campaign is slightly different from recent years.

After all, when your squad has been led for two Olympic cycles by champions such as Mahe Drysdale, Eric Murray and Hamish Bond, expectations are usually high.

But all three are missing from the squad who travelled to Europe this week for World Cups in Poznan, Poland, and Lucerne in Switzerland, with the Henley regatta in England sandwiched between.

Rio champion Drysdale is taking the year off but is expected to return to training soon; Murray has retired, and Bond, his partner in the unbeaten coxless pair for the past eight years, is turning his attention to road cycling.

There are other changes in crews and several new faces. So while Rowing New Zealand want to see solid development, and the bar kept high, there’s a degree of realism about what might come from the trip.

“We’re keeping a long game for Tokyo,” high performance boss Alan Cotter said, referring to the 2020 Olympics. “We’re making sure we are getting the development in these athletes. We’re pretty happy where things are going.”

The world championships are in Florida starting on September 24. New Zealand’s target is three medals.

There is optimism over the form of several crews.

Cotter is particularly happy with the men’s and women’s doubles; the women’s pair, lightweight women’s double where Zoe McBride and Jackie Kiddle, world under- 23 champions in 2015, have stepped in with Sophie MacKenzie and Julia Edward taking time out from the sport.

The lightweight double Olympic event.

The light single is not but Cotter ruled out the gifted McBride attempting to move into the heavyweight single scull vacated by former world champion Emma Twigg.

That seat will be filled by Hannah Osborne this season, while Olivia Loe and Brook Donoghue are in the double, replacing Eve Macfarlane, who i s taking a break, and Zoe Stevenson.

Kerri Gowler and Grace Prendergast, in the eight last year, are in the coxless pair, and there are other movements among the crews.

And as for Robbie Manson, filling Drysdale’s substantial shoes, and former lightweight rower James Hunter and Tom Murray, in the coxless pair, Cotter will watch their progress with interest.

“There are some good pairs going around. If they [ Hunter and Murray] make the final in Lucerne, we’ll be pretty happy,” he said.

The World Cup regatta in Poznan starts next Friday, with the Lucerne regatta from July 7- 9. i s an