Ben Taylor and Oli Welch have booked their place in the gold medal race at the World Rowing Championships in Amsterdam, and they did it in some style.
The defending world champion pair were the only New Zealand crew to reach an A Final on day three of racing on the Bosbaan course. They led from start to finish in their semifinal, holding off Romania and a fast-improving Australian crew to post the fastest time of the two semis.
Another trademark start from the Kiwis.
"I think we're naturally quite quick out of the blocks," says Oli. "We're quite explosive in the gym so it lends itself to a quick start. From there, we just try to control the race from the front."
New Zealand led Australia by more than two seconds at halfway. By the 1500m mark that margin had stretched past three seconds, and Taylor and Welch crossed the line in 6:39.99. Australia took second in 6:41.84, with Romania third in 6:43.11.
Asked how hard they'd had to work to keep the Australians at bay, Oli wasn't giving anything away.
"I can't say too much. Don't want to give it away."
"The final will definitely be exciting, they'll be going for it even more, and so will we."
Ben Mason and Finn Hamill had a tougher day in the Men's Double Sculls, one of the most fiercely contested events in Amsterdam. They sat fifth with 500m to go, nearly three seconds off leaders Great Britain, and couldn't find a way through a desperate scramble to the line. Great Britain, Belgium, Czechia and Portugal all finished ahead of them, and the New Zealanders will now race the B Final.
Kathryn Glen's regatta is a story of its own. She finished fifth in heat one of the Women's Single Sculls, just months after a scan in May revealed a stress reaction in a rib, discovered right before she was due to fly out with the Women's Quad for the World Cup season.
"It was such a shock," she says. "It took me a few days to believe it because I've always been so sweet with that kind of injury... it took a few days and then I was like, 'Okay, back into it, just grind it out on the bike.'"
Missing out on the quad stung, but she's embracing the single.
"I feel like it's a bit of a once in a lifetime opportunity to say that you're the women's single sculler, so just trying to embrace that while I'm here."
She races the quarterfinals tomorrow at 11.05pm NZT. Her expectations are grounded.
"The C final is realistically where it is. If I can get to the B Final, that's pretty cool. I just want to keep improving and seeing how close I can get to those other girls."
She'd had time to think it over, riding back to the hotel alone on a near-empty athlete bus. "The first day was always about going out and seeing what happens because I haven't raced any of these girls before... just need to be braver through the middle K. I was probably too focused on rowing well into the wind than just like savage with it."
Katie Lush and Juliette Lequeux finished fourth in their semifinal of the Women's Pair, well beaten by a Romanian crew stroked by Simona Radis, widely regarded as the best female rower in the world. Romania won in 7:20.94 from Chilean sisters Antonia and Melita Abraham (7:29.85) and Italy (7:31.34). Lush and Lequeux crossed in 7:40.56 and head to the B Final.
Eva Hofmans and Sophie Egnot-Johnson, in their first season together in the Women's Double Sculls, lined up in a C Final stacked with quality, including the Greek crew that won silver at last month's European Championships. They finished sixth in 7:34.67, with Greece winning in 7:20.88, placing 18th overall. Sophie will now switch to the Mixed Double with Ben Mason.
