Cohen and Twining the class acts at Ruataniwha

Repechages in the Premier events brought no surprises this afternoon at the BankLink New Zealand Rowing Championships at Lake Ruantaniwha.

About the only surprise on the day was the withdrawal from the men’s Premier Double Scull event of Mahé Drysdale and crew mate Henry Poor, presumably because the triple world champion’s boat was a little off the pace and he preferred to concentrate on the challenge of defeating Rob Waddell in the Premier single scull.

Repechages to decide the remaining semi-final places for that event took place during the afternoon, with New Zealand’s current crop of world class single scullers all making it through.

Peter Taylor and Storm Uru – competing in heavyweight and lightweight double and single scull events this week as well as the quadruple scull – dominated their races and went into the semis as rep winners, as did Nathan Cohen, seemingly on the mend after a recent shoulder injury and clocking the fastest time so far by anyone in a single scull at the regatta – a 7.04.

Also in the semis will be current lightweight world champions Duncan Grant and Graham Oberlin-Brown, Southern RPC’s John Storey, Central RPC’s Daniel Karena (another former world medallist) and Waikato RPC’s Daniel Murtagh and Andrew Myers.

In the women’s Premier single the experienced Paula Twining – a long time member of New Zealand’s elite national squad – lead the way for Waikato RPC in the first repechage, coming home ahead of Southern RPC’s Sarah Barnes. Waikato took out the remaining two places for the final courtesy of Odette Sceats and Tale Gjortz in the second repechage.

On a quiet day at the regatta, the weather remained perfect for racing. Waikato and Canterbury both had decent days with many of their repechage crews progressing. Attention now turns to the semi finals tomorrow, a key day when surprise results are not unheard of.

Results up until 12.00pm - http://www.rowingnz.com/Resource.aspx?ID=2906