Today three medals and a world best time highlighted a four-medal regatta for New Zealand at the 2015 Under-23 World Championships in Plovdiv, Bulgaria. The women's lightweight double of Zoe McBride and Jackie Kiddle dominated their race winning gold in a record breaking time, while the men's quad and women's double claimed silver on the last day of competition. Yesterday the men's coxed four also won silver.
It was ladies first for New Zealand on the closing day of competition with the women's double of Brooke Donoghue and Claudia Hyde leading the charge in the race for medals. Reigning world champions Romania quickly established the lead and controlled the race from the front. At the 500m marker New Zealand was sitting in fourth position, but there was only a boat length separating the entire field. At the halfway point New Zealand had pushed themselves into second and were in hot pursuit of the race leaders from Romania and were just half a length back, into the final sprint the kiwis had pulled within a canvas. Hyde and Donoghue were unable to crack the Romanian's for the win but put in a very determined performance. Romania took gold in 6:57.57, New Zealand was home for silver in 6:58.77, and the Netherlands nabbed the bronze
Hyde was delighted with the silver medal "We are really happy with the race. We just got beaten by a bigger and better crew. We are pretty proud of ourselves as we couldn't do any better."
Women's lightweight double Jackie Kiddle and Zoe McBride were crowned the 2015 world champions and claimed the world best time in their event. Kiddle and McBride bettered the world best time of 6:59.31 which was set by Greece in 2011. Kiddle and McBride brought their A game to the A final, stretching out in a race of their own to claim a decisive win in 6:54.83. Nearly six seconds back the silver went to China in 7:00.75 and bronze was claimed by Switzerland.
Jackie Kiddle was shocked with their world best time efforts "I can't believe it, it feels surreal!"
Kiddle believed their success boiled down to one key thing "The elite team environment is so professional, and we have learnt so much from being with the lightweight women and the whole team. That made the difference between doing well at this regatta to winning at this regatta."
Zoe McBride now holds two world best times one at the under-23 level and the other in the senior level in the women's lightweight single. McBride said "It was a brilliant race, we went out there and just wanted to dominate the field and execute the perfect race plan. We are so happy about the time we did."
Canada were the frontrunners out of the start in the men's quad A final, but it was a tight race over the first 500m with all crews still in contention. The New Zealand crew of Lewis Hollows, Russell Crampton, Cameron Crampton and Jordan Parry remained composed throughout the race and put in a last ditch sprint in an attempt to overhaul the Canadian crew but Canada weren't having a bar of it and kicked into another gear to win gold a boat length ahead of the kiwis who claimed silver and bronze went to Australia.
Stroke Lewis Hollows said their race went to plan "We executed the first thousand exactly as we wanted. In the third 500, the Canadians were just faster. It is my first international medal and that's pretty cool."
New Zealanders Bryce Abernethy and Matt Dunham were slow to start off in the men's lightweight double scull, but perseverance was paying dividends as the race went on, however it was too little too late as they finished just outside of medal contention for fourth. Italy edged New Zealand for bronze, while silver went to the Netherlands and Gold was secured by Germany who led from start to finish.
Overall the campaign has been successful with six out seven New Zealand crews making it through to the A finals. The women's coxless four finished fifth in their A final and the women's quad finished first in their B final yesterday.
The next major regatta on the calendar for the New Zealand Rowing Team is the 2015 world junior rowing championships in Rio, Brazil. The junior team depart from New Zealand on Friday 31 July. The regatta will get underway on 5 August which also begins the one year to go countdown for the 2016 Olympic Games. The junior regatta will conclude on 9 August.
The season is not yet over for the under-23 gold medallist Zoe McBride as she will join the elite team in Aiguebelette France, to contest the international boat class event the women's lightweight single scull at the world rowing championships. The world championships which run from 30 August to 6 September also double as the chief qualifying regatta for the 2016 Summer Olympic Games and this is where New Zealand will attempt to qualify all 14 Olympic boat classes for Rio.