New Zealand rowers maintain superlative form

New Zealand has again confirmed itself as the world's top nation in small boat rowing in the build up to the World Championship in Poland next month with another haul of medals at the final World Cup regatta in Lucerne, Switzerland.

Five gold medals - for Mahe Drysdale, Storm Uru and Peter Taylor, Eric Murray and Hamish Bond, Rebecca Scown and Emma Feathery and Duncan Grant proved the team remains on track for a great World Championship.

With Duncan Grant's Saturday win to spur them on, Rebecca Scown and Emma Feathery set the ball rolling for New Zealand with a second dominant display in an A final of a World Cup regatta, taking the race to the field as they did in Munich with a superior rate and boat speed over the first 1,000 metres. The girls are starting to look like a formidable duo and emphasised that with a clear water lead by the 1,500 metre mark. With the Germans closing fast, the Kiwis hung on to take a very impressive one second win which left them - lke Grant - unbeaten on this year's World Cup trail.

Next up were the men's pair of Hamish Bond and Eric Murray. Once again, the pair took the race on early and in the middle 1000 metres simply decimated the field. The long faces on the British crew on the dais were a clear indication that Bond and Murray currently have a significant advantage in the boat. It isn't that the other crews are going slow, it's just that the New Zealand boat has truly exceptional speed. Gold number three for the regatta - and a huge winning margin aswell.

Paula Twining and Anna Reymer were keen to make the most of their first A final in the women's double and put in a very solid row. Not quite with the leading pack made up of Germany, Bulgaria,the United States and Poland quite yet, they nevertheless raced well to beat the Italians and finish a very creditable fifth. This was a significant step forward from Munich, and in a bigger field.

Gold number four came courtesy of the lightweight men's double scull of Storm Uru and Peter Taylor. In a fascinating and close race, the duo were still less than half a second ahead of the fast Canadians at the 1,500 metre mark but put in a scintillating finishing sprint to put clear water on the field by the line. As with New Zealand's other small boats, Taylor and Uru seem to have a growing confidence with which to take control of a race.

Emma Twigg performed well in her final of the women's single scull. Part of the leading group of three that moved away from early on - her race was all about beating Chinese sculler Zhang and seeing how close she could get to 2009 pace setter Mirka Knapkova. Twigg's race to the line with Zhang brought her the silver emdal, and to withing five seconds of Knapkova - a decent result with sizx weeks to go before the World Championships. The margin over World Cup leader Kath Grainger of Great Britain will also have pleased the Hawkes Bay sculler.

There was disappointment for Nathan Cohen and Matthew Trott in the double scull. After a race when the top four were never more than a length apart, the silver medallists from Munich and winners at Henley crossed the line less than a second away from victory, but with the German, Estonian and French double sculls ahead of them. Fourth will spur them on for Poznan and the crew also know they are competitive with the best in the world at the moment.

Gold number five came - inevitably - from Mahe Drysdale. In dominant form at the moment, he led right from the start, and only Olympic champ Olaf Tufte was able to stay in touch. Looking confident and fit, Drysdale ran away with it in the final 250 metres and clocked a very impressive 6 minutes 50 seconds - three seconds ahead of Tufte. Ondrej Synek was way out of it in fifth.