The Post

Rookie Kiwis to face big test

- IAN ANDERSON

Rowing New Zealand’s fresh approach will get its biggest test of the year when the world champs start in the United States on Monday morning (NZ time).

After an ultimately disappoint­ing Olympic regatta last year, the team to attend the 2017 world champs in Sarasota-Bradenton, Florida, features a swag of new boat/rower combinatio­ns.

The early signs for the Kiwi team have been overwhelmi­ngly positive - New Zealand led the World Cup medal table in Poland with six gold and a silver and repeated that effort in Switzerlan­d.

But as they discovered in Rio, competitio­n jumps up a notable level at the biggest regatta of the internatio­nal season.

At the Olympics, the wily veterans dealt best with the pressure and tough conditions on the water as Mahe Drysdale and Hamish Bond and Eric Murray were NZ’s only gold medallists, while Rebecca Scown and Genevieve Behrent claimed silver.

Of that quartet, only Scown will be in action in the US while a host of new combinatio­ns will look to continue their push towards staying in the boat through to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

In the men’s single scull, Robbie Manson has already stated he wants to remain in that boat after switching from the double - with Drysdale poised to return this summer seeking a third consecutiv­e Olympic gold.

Other new boats that excelled at World Cup level include both the women’s and men’s double sculls crews of Chris Harris and John Storey and Olivia Loe and Brooke Donoghue, the men’s pair of Jamie Hunter and Tom Murray and the lightweigh­t women’s double sculls crew of Jackie Kiddle and Zoe McBride.

Storey has replaced Manson in the men’s double and he and Harris won both World Cup events they contested and should fight out the event in the US with Poland, Italy and a Norway crew that features the remarkable 41-year-old Olaf Tufte.

Loe and Donoghue also did the World Cup double and are determined to stake an early claim for Tokyo after 2015 world champions Zoe Stevenson and Eve Macfarlane could only manage 12th in Rio, with both taking a break for 2017.

The women’s pair of Grace Prendergas­t and Kerri Gowler won world champs silver in 2015 but were usurped in the boat for Rio by Scown and Behrent while Prendergas­t and Gowler were in the eight which finished fourth in Rio. They haven’t missed a beat back in the pair this year, winning at both World Cups they contested, including setting a new world’s best time.

The women’s eight were disappoint­ed not to make the podium in Rio and that will be their goal in the US, with a slightly rejigged crew up against a host of tough opponents including the hosts US, Great Britain and Romania.

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