NZ adds muscle for Lucerne
Red-hot: New Zealand crews will make a full-scale assault on the final World Cup regatta of the season starting in Lucerne on Friday.
The Kiwi team to contest the three-day event will feature boats in 15 classes, as they have their last international appearance before the world championships in Chungju, South Korea, in late August.
The Rowing NZ team which captured five medals – four gold and a silver – at the second World Cup regatta at Eton Dorney last month will be bolstered by the addition of the full women’s team.
At Eton Dorney, NZ contested just two women’s categories as the rest of the team remained in New Zealand for training under women’s head coach Dick Tonks before heading to Europe to compete in the Holland Beker invitational event in Amsterdam late last month.
Now the women’s lightweight single scull, lightweight double, double scull, quad and eight join the rest of the squad, with the only Olympic-class event New Zealand has not entered a team in being the men’s eight.
The team includes the red-hot men’s double sculls crew of Michael Arms and Robbie Manson, who won their third international title of the year yesterday at the Henley Royal Regatta in London.
The duo, who have replaced 2012 London Olympic gold medallists Joseph Sullivan and Nathan Cohen in the boat this year, followed up wins in the first two World Cup events at Sydney and Eton Dorney by winning the Challenge Cup final against the strong Great Britain combination of Matt Langridge and Bill Lucas in a course record time for the double sculls.
That effort was matched by the allconquering Kiwi men’s pair of Eric Murray and Hamish Bond, who romped to victory over the South African opponents to take the Silver Goblets and Nickalls Challenge Cup title while also equalling the race record.
Women’s single sculler Emma Twigg lost a close final to Olympic champion Mirka Knapkova of the Czech Republic in her final while the NZ men’s quad also had to settle for a runner-up spot.