Southern rowers dominate in early races

Southern rowers dominate in early races at BankLink New Zealand Championships

Double scullers Matthew Trott and Nathan Cohen are through to their final at the BankLink New Zealand Rowing Championships at Lake Ruataniwha after a dominant heat win.

The 2007 New Zealand selected crew – racing this week as Southern Regional Performance Centre - have won the national title for the past two years and look odds-on to be at the sharp end in the final again. Cohen put fears of a niggling shoulder injury behind him to set a blistering pace in the first 500 metres, leaving the rest of the field in his wake and setting up a comfortable second half row.

Olympic lightweight combination Peter Taylor and Storm Uru – also rowing for Southern RPC as a heavyweight crew – also made the final via the second heat, comfortably beating Auckland's Henry Poor and Mahé Drysdale in the process.

Central combination Anna Reymer and Simone Hudson went through in the women's double, as have Auckland's Emma Twigg and Tamsin Gilbert. There will be a new winner for the first time in a decade in this event following the retirement of the double Olympic champions, Caroline and Georgina Evers-Swindell.

Elsewhere in the morning’s premier events, Southern RPC athletes Hamish Bond and Jade Uru won their men's pair heat, beating Eric Murray and Simon Watson of Waikato RPC. In a thin field, these are the two class crews and it will be interesting to see how the final shapes out. Bond and Murray are hot tips to line up in the NZ pair this season on the international regatta circuit, and both will desperately want the national title – won last year by Bond and Carl Meyer.

Lightweight world champion Duncan Grant and Under-23 Lightweight world champion Graham Oberlin-Brown dominated their heats of the light singles and clocked almost identical times – setting up what could well be another nail-biting final.

The heavyweight single scullers are out later today, with Drysdale, Rob Waddell, Cohen and form-man Joseph Sullivan all going in the heats.  Grant will be out in that race too, aiming to take a few scalps.

A slight cross wind was the only blemish to perfect racing conditions in Twizel. Almost 700 crews will take part in the racing this week, one of the biggest fields at the event for some years.

Picture shows: The Premier Pair race gets underway early this morning at Lake Ruataniwha in perfect conditions at the BankLink New Zealand Rowing Championships

Results up until 12.00pm - http://www.rowingnz.com/Resource.aspx?ID=2881

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