New boats bolster NZ stocks ahead of world champs
Any fears a lack of star power may give Rowing New Zealand a postOlympic hangover have been rapidly washed away.
Six gold medals and a silver at the final World Cup regatta of the year last week capped a hugely successful European campaign for the NZ team that was trying a host of new boat combinations following a disappointing medal haul at Rio 2016.
The Kiwi team was without their only gold medal winners from Rio - single sculler Mahe Drysdale and the men’s pair of Hamish Bond and Eric Murray, with Drysdale taking a year off, Bond attempting to switch to cycling for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and Murray retired.
A number of previous world champions also took a season off, so the NZ team that contested the second and third World Cups in Poland and Switzerland and the Henley Royal Regatta featured eight boats that were untested at world senior level.
Those events confirmed New Zealand’s standing as a world rowing superpower with impressive depth. Rowing writer Daniel Spring pointed out New Zealand’s post-Olympic year performance has improved notably and continually this century when accounting for their results at the final World Cup regatta of the year following the Games.
In Olympic-class events in 1997, NZ claimed a sole bronze, silver and bronze in 2001 and a gold and two silver in 2005. In 2009, that jumped to four gold, a silver and a bronze, while the team claimed three gold, two silver and a bronze in 2013.
Robbie Manson played a starring role, replacing Drysdale in the men’s single scull seat with aplomb. Manson, who wants to be in the single at Tokyo, won both World Cup events and set a new world-best time in Poznan, removing Drysdale’s previous best from the record books.
He was one of four NZ boats that won both their World Cup appearances, with the women’s pair, women’s double sculls and men’s double sculls also claiming two golds while lightweight women’s sculler Jackie Kiddle won gold on her own in Poland and in partnership in Lucerne with Zoe McBride.
The women’s pair of Kerri Gowler and Grace Prendergast, world champs in 2015, resumed their partnership in emphatic fashion. The duo lost their seats for Rio to Rebecca Scown and Genevieve Behrent, who won Olympic silver, but with Behrent taking this season off, Gowler and Prendergast again staked their claim. They didn’t double up in the eight as they did in 2015 and Scown and Behrent did in Rio, and that system may stay in place for the world champs, with Scown again guiding the eight that had a win in Poland and silver in Switzerland.
Olivia Loe and Brooke Donoghue took over a women’s double sculls boat but could only finish 12th in Rio. With both Zoe Stevenson and Eve Macfarlane taking a season off, Loe and Donoghue headed off all opposition in Poznan and Lucerne. So did their men’s counterparts, as John Storey switched from the quad for Rio to join Chris Harris as Manson’s replacement.
The men’s pair of Tom Murray and Jamie Hunter made a late start to their campaign after an injury to Hunter but they won gold in Lucerne ahead of Rio Olympic double sculls champs Martin and Valent Sinkovic, who have switched to the sweep event.
Hannah Osborne made a useful start to her introduction to the top level in the women’s single scull while men’s lightweight single sculler Matt Dunham won the Diamond Challenge Sculls at Henley.
The youthful men’s quad of Lewis Hollows, Cameron Crampton, Nathan Flannery and Giacomo Thomas won the B final in Poznan and then just missed making the podium in the A final in Lucerne, while the only disappointment of note for the Kiwis was the performance of the men’s eight in Lucerne. After finishing sixth in Rio, big things were expected of the young crew in the long build-up to Tokyo but after taking silver in Poznan they were off the pace the following month.