Golden campaign for New Zealand rowers   1 Sep 2014

The New Zealand rowing team concluded the regatta with a tally of nine medals including six gold, two silver and one bronze.  This is the largest number of gold medals won at a World Rowing Championships for New Zealand – making it the most successful campaign ever. New Zealand also backed up their world cup series win by topping the world rowing championships medal table, with Great Britain finishing second and Australia in third.

At Lake Karapiro in 2010 New Zealand claimed a total of ten world championship medals - three gold, three silver and four bronze. However the following year the team bettered the total number of gold medals winning four gold, a silver and four bronze at the 2011 world championship event.

In 2014 the New Zealand men’s coxed pair, men’s pair, women’s four, women’s lightweight double scull, women’s double scull and women’s single scull won gold, silver went to the men’s lightweight four  and men’s single scull while the women’s pair bagged bronze. On the final day of competition the female scullers Emma Twigg, Zoe Stevenson and Fiona Bourke won their first elite world championship titles, while the men’s lightweight four crew and Mahe Drysdale in the men’s single scull secured silver.

Contesting the A final from lane six the women’s double scull combination of Zoe Stevenson and Fiona Bourke were in fifth through the first 500m. Once they got to the second half of the race they had positioned themselves into fourth, with only 500m left to run they were in third and changed into a faster gear putting in a late burst to claim Gold in 6:38.04. With 250m to go the New Zealanders had their bow in front and refused to claim anything less than the Gold in 2014. Poland was just over a second back to the silver medal and Australia managed a bronze.

The final of the men’s lightweight four was expected to be one of the most dramatic races of the regatta with all crews expected to challenge hard for the medals. New Zealand’s crew had an unfortunate stroke of misfortune when James Lassche was substituted out of the crew due to a back injury. Alistair Bond jumped in the boat with Curtis Rapley, Peter Taylor and James Hunter for the semi-finals and the crew remained unchanged for the finals. All six crews in the final were still in the hunt for medals with the first 500m completed. New Zealand had inched into the lead at the halfway point, but going into the last quarter Denmark took the lead all the way to the finish line, securing a one and half second lead for the Gold in a time of 5:47.15. New Zealand clung courageously on to the silver medal and Great Britain was home for bronze.
Mahe Drysdale the current Olympic champion bounced back from his sabbatical and a disappointing end to the 2013 championship regatta by claiming Gold at the second and third world cup regattas and finishing his season off with silver at the world championships. In the men’s single scull final the Cuban sculler Angel Fournier Rodriguez was the early front runner, with the Ondrej Synek from the Czech Republic and Lithuanian Mindaugas Griskonis sticking with him through the first 500m. By the middle of the race the kiwi had pushed himself into third position, with a powerful second 1000m up his sleeve, he applied some pressure and charged through the Cuban, but Ondrej Synek wasn’t letting go of Gold that easily and with only 400m remaining in the race Drysdale and Synek were going stroke for stroke. Synek won in 6:37.12 just edging Drysdale out for the Gold.  
In the final of the women’s single scull Emma Twigg wanted to make sure she was going to be standing on top of the podium, after being runner-up in 2013 with her previous best performances coming in 2010 and 2011 where she was the bronze medal winner. Through the first quarter of the finals race Australian Kim Crow had a marginal lead over the New Zealander, but with some strong gains leading into the 1000m Twigg had claimed the front. With 500m left to run the kiwi had made a massive move to gain a clearwater margin on Crow, and she never relinquished her lead. Twigg backed up her impressive and consistent 2014 world cup performances winning Gold in 7:14.95, with Crow back to silver, and the Chinese sculler Jingli Duan taking the bronze.

In the men’s double Scull B final Karl and Robbie Manson finished in second behind Great Britain, they complete the regatta with an overall 8th ranking.

The 2015 World Rowing Championships will be hosted by Aiguebelette, France from 30 August to 6 September 2015. Aiguebelette hosted the world championships in 1997 and also held the second world cup regatta in 2014. This regatta will be the highlight of the international rowing calendar in 2015, and in a pre-Olympic year it will also act as the main qualification event for the following year's 2016 Olympics in Rio.

Rowing New Zealand will name a high performance summer squad on 10 September for the group to commence training on 29 September. Regional Performance Centre squads for Auckland, Waikato, Central and Southern will also be named in September.

New Zealand Medal Tally at 2014 World Rowing Championships

Gold
Men’s Coxed Pair
Men’s Pair
Women’s Lightweight Double Scull
Women’s Four
Women’s Double Scull
Women’s Single Scull

Silver
Men’s Lightweight Four
Men’s Single Scull

Bronze
Women’s Pair

World Rowing Championships 2014 – New Zealand Crews
 
Women’s Single Scull
Emma Twigg (Hawkes Bay RC, Auckland RPC)
Gary Hay (Coach)
 
Women’s Lightweight Double Scull
Julia Edward (Rotorua RC, Waikato RPC)
Sophie MacKenzie (Wairau RC, Central RPC)
Gary Hay (Coach)
 
Women’s Coxless Pair
Rebecca Scown (Union Wanganui RC, Central RPC)
Louise Trappitt (Star BC, Central RPC)
Gary Hay (Coach)
 
Women’s Double Scull
Zoe Stevenson (Tauranga RC, Waikato RPC)
Fiona Bourke (Otago University RC, Southern RPC)
Dick Tonks (Coach)
 
Women’s Coxless Four
Kerri Gowler (Aramoho-Wanganui RC, Central RPC)
Grace Prendergast (Avon RC, Southern RPC)
Kelsey Bevan (Counties-Manukau RC, Auckland RPC)
Kayla Pratt (Auckland RC, Auckland RPC)
Marion Horwell (Coach)
 
Women’s Quad
Erin-Monique O’Brien (Petone RC, Central RPC)
Lucy Spoors (Canterbury RC, Southern RPC)
Georgia Perry (Cambridge RC, Waikato RPC)
Sarah Gray (Waikato RC, Waikato RPC)
Mike Rodger (Coach)
 
Men’s Single Scull
Mahe Drysdale (West End RC, Auckland RPC)
Dick Tonks (Coach)
 
Men’s Coxless Pair
Hamish Bond (North End RC, Southern RPC)
Eric Murray (Waikato RC, Waikato RPC)
Noel Donaldson (Coach)

Men’s Coxed Pair
Hamish Bond (North End RC, Southern RPC)
Eric Murray (Waikato RC, Waikato RPC)
Caleb Shepherd (Coxswain) (Waikato RC, Waikato RPC)
Noel Donaldson (Coach)
 
Men’s Lightweight Double Scull
Alistair Bond (Otago University RC, Southern RPC)
Adam Ling (Tauranga RC, Waikato RPC)
Dave Thompson (Coach)
 
Men’s Double Scull
Robbie Manson (Wairau RC, Central RPC)
Karl Manson (Blenheim RC, Central RPC)
Calvin Ferguson (Coach)
 
Men’s Quad
Chris Harris (Aramoho-Wanganui RC, Central RPC)
Nathan Flannery (Union Christchurch RC, Southern RPC)
John Storey (Avon RC, Southern RPC)
Jade Uru (Waihopai RC, Southern RPC)
Calvin Ferguson (Coach)
 
Men’s Lightweight Coxless Four
Curtis Rapley (Tauranga RC, Waikato RPC)
James Lassche (Avon RC, Southern RPC) – for the heats only
Alistair Bond (Otago University RC, Southern RPC – for semi-final and finals
Peter Taylor (Auckland RC, Auckland RPC)
James Hunter (Wellington RC, Central RPC)
Dave Thompson (Coach)
 
Travelling Reserves
Linda Matthews (Star BC, Central RPC)
Giacomo Thomas (Hawkes Bay RC, Auckland RPC)
 
Team Managers
Jan Taylor & Andrea Harper

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