The next wave of New Zealand rowing talent has made a confident start to the Under 23 World Championships in Duisburg, Germany, with the Men's Eight qualifying directly for the A final after impressing in heat one.
The eight were drawn against reigning world champions Great Britain. Britain led throughout, finishing in 5 minutes 48.54 seconds, but New Zealand tracked well and by the 1500m mark had closed to less than a length behind GB while sitting half a length clear of Germany. They crossed in 5:51.26 to advance.
Only Syracuse University's Nic Bryan returns from last year's silver-medal crew, back in four seat. He's joined by Oli Leach, Dylan McConnell, Matthew Glen, Sam Woodgate, and Luke Hickling, all of whom came through Sacred Heart, St Bede's, or Hamilton Boys during the Maadi Cup and Springbok Shield season of 2023, plus Ted Mayne, Josh Syme, and cox Hunter Rowland.
"He's been a real good leader in the boat," says Sam Woodgate of Bryan. "Especially like bringing some of the key things that helped out last year, like the swing in the third 500."
The mix of ideas from different American university programmes has added another dimension. "It's quite cool like coming together with all these different US schools and bringing their own aspect to it," Sam says. "Like Luke at Northeastern, they have a pretty rapid start, and he's been giving us a bit of info on that. I feel like we're all putting our ideas together and it's helping…and sort of meeting in the middle has been really cool with the New Zealand guys and the American guys."
Coach Calvin Ferguson, who had the eight last year, says the technical work done in the build-up has been a big factor. "We've been working a lot of work around clean blade work, around shape and separation. They're not as strong on ergs as last year's crew, they're not too far off, but the way they're rowing, executing the pick-up of the boat and acceleration, it's just going to be another step-up Sunday." The crew race for gold just after 9pm Sunday night NZT.
Madeline Cox was the first New Zealander in action, lining up in the Women's Single Sculls after being named as travelling reserve but impressing enough to earn entry into the regatta proper. She drew Greece's U19 World Champion Varvar Lykomitrou in the opening heat. Lykomitrou won in 8:14.00, Ukraine was second in 8:16.02, and Madeline finished third in 8:23.98 — seventh fastest overall across the four heats.
"Madeline's a numbers person, so she was fully aware of what was going on," says coach Mark Stallard. "By the time we'd walked back to the tent to start recovery the numbers had come through…seventh fastest time overall in a field like this is pretty cool. She's happy." Her semifinal is scheduled for around 7.40pm tomorrow night.
The Women's Quad of Madison Neale, Emma Bagrie, Tegan O'Dwyer, and Harriet Thompson also made the A final, posting 7:12.78 to claim the fifth fastest time across the two heats despite finishing behind the USA, Italy, and Germany in their race. They race tomorrow night.
It was a harder day for the remaining two crews. Tadhg Farac and Charlie Beale, both in their first major international flatwater regatta, finished fifth in their Men's Pair heat in 7:23.51. "It's definitely a big step," says Tadhg. "Obviously class competition compared to domestic racing. We probably just struggled to race to the conditions I think…just shortened up a little bit through that middle and let the race get away from us."
The Men's Quad of Clayton Potts, Fynn Allison, Mat King, and Jack Pearson faced a tough field that included defending champions Czechia and Poland's silver-medal crew from 2023, finishing sixth in 6:42.03. Both the pair and the quad will contest C Finals tonight.
