McBride carries on Kiwi winning ways in Bled heats

McBride carries on Kiwi winning ways in Bled heats

Adaptive sculler Danny McBride continued the Kiwi rowing team's winning ways with a great win in his heat in the Rowing World Championships at Bled in Slovenia overnight.

Second at the first 500 metres, McBride then stormed through the German sculler Johannes Schmidt and powered away into a lead he would not lose. His row qualified the Te Awamutu athlete directly to the semi final.

The lightweight women's double of Louise Ayling and Lucy Strack was hunting for direct progression to the semi final and pressured the highly regarded British crew of Hester Goodsell and Sophie Hosking throughout. In the last 500 metres the Kiwi girls came right back into contention and finished less than a second down - not good enough for direct progression but a firm indication that they have the pedigree to progress further in the regatta.

The men's eight needed to finish in the top three in the repechage to guarantee progression into the A or B semi finals and duly obliged by tracking the boats from France and the Czech Republic closely and moving away from Lithuania. At the finish line they were just a length of the French and through to the main semi finals.

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