Dynamic duo march on with easy victory
The seemingly unbeatable men’s pair of Hamish Bond and Eric Murray last night took another step towards what’s likely to be Olympic glory.
The Kiwi duo haven’t been topped since teaming up in the pair after the 2008 Olympics and are hot favourites to win gold at the Games after the Great Britain pair of Pete Reed and Andrew Triggs Hodge switched to the men’s four.
The Kiwis grabbed gold in Lucerne at their first World Cup regatta of their European campaign as they aim towards the London Olympics.
Kiwi boats captured three medals in the morning session with another five boats – including single scullers Mahe Drysdale and Emma Twigg – to contest A finals later in the day in Switzerland.
Bond and Murray trailed the Canadian duo of Dave Calder and Scott Frandsen at the halfway mark but surged past them in the third quarter to win by almost three seconds with Greece third.
The lightweight men’s double sculls crew of Storm Uru and Peter Taylor won silver behind France thanks to a strong finish. The duo were last after the first 500 metres but pushed hard to pip Denmark for second spot.
The women’s pair of Juliette Haigh and Rebecca Scown were beaten into third place in their A final. The Kiwi combination has won gold at the past two world championships but will have their work cut out to beat the Great Britain crew of Helen Glover and Heather Stanning in front of their home crowd in London. The British pair won in 7:02.14, with the US second almost two seconds back and New Zealand third in 7:05.98.
Anna Reymer and Fi Paterson were fifth in the women’s double sculls final, over seven seconds behind winners GB while the men’s four of Jade Uru, Chris Harris, Tyson Williams and Sean O’neill were sixth and last in the final won by the GB four.