New Zealand's crews arrived at World Cup Plovdiv in Bulgaria to find a very different field from the one they faced in Seville a fortnight ago. Many leading nations have headed to training camp between rounds, and those that returned have largely fielded new combinations. That left the Kiwis with less to benchmark against but more freedom to develop their own racing.
Ben Taylor and Oli Welch had no need for external reference points. World champions in the Men's Pair, their focus is on how fast they are going, not on anyone else. They led all the way to win heat two in 6min 19.01sec, less than three seconds off their personal best from the heats at last year's World Championships. Serbia finished second in 6.29.76, China third in 6.34.24, and the next fastest heat winner was Italy at 6.26.07.
Finn Hamill and Ben Mason were equally sharp in the Men's Double Sculls, winning their heat in 6.08.79, nearly eight seconds clear of Chile's Ignacio and Alfredo Abraham. The time was just 0.18 seconds outside their best-ever mark at this level, set in the semifinals at World Cup Varese last year. Finn had moved to stroke seat as part of a deliberate reset. "I think we did what any reasonable crew would do and just completely changed everything coming into here," he said. "It's nice to see we've still got it."
Katie Lush and Juliette Lequeux had limited time in the Women's Pair before leaving for Europe after Alice Fahey withdrew with injury. They drew a tough heat against Chile and Czechia, the gold and bronze medallists from Seville, and finished third in 7.05.62, pushing Czechia hard over the final 200 metres. "We didn't realise how close we were to them so it'll be cool in the final to see if we can give it a crack a bit earlier," said Katie, who felt the gap from Seville had narrowed. Juliette pointed to growing cohesion in the boat: "Our first 500 today just felt a lot more connected to each other."
Eva Hofmans and Sophie Egnot-Johnson earned their first-ever A Final at this level, finishing second in the Women's Double Sculls heat in 6.55.55 behind the United States' 6.53.74. Sophie was candid about a rough patch after the trip from New Zealand. "We were going quite well back home and then with the travel and whatnot we kind of lost our mojo a little bit and were really struggling to find it before Seville." She is not spending energy sizing up Sunday's opponents. "To be honest I don't really like looking into who I'm racing. I don't want to scare myself!"
Alana Sherman, Isla Blake, Kate Haines and Ella Cossill finished second in the Women's Four preliminary, clocking 6.26.71 to the Americans' 6.19.80. Several crews from the Seville final, including Great Britain, Ireland, the Netherlands, Australia and Poland, were absent from Plovdiv. "It's great to be putting ourselves up against a quick crew like that, we can only learn," said Isla. "It's cool to be able to race them in the prelim and then have another opportunity in the A Final on Sunday."
The Men's Four of Fred Vavasour, Campbell Crouch, Harry Fitzpatrick and Josh Vodanovich faced a similar situation, with Great Britain, France, the Netherlands and Denmark all skipping this round. They crossed third in 5.51.22 behind China (5.48.41) and Ukraine (5.51.09), doing enough to qualify for Sunday's A Final.
In the Women's Quad preliminary, Olivia Hay, Stella Clayton-Greene, Beckie Leigh and Veronica Wall finished third in 6.25.54 behind the USA (6.13.31) and China (6.20.63). Hay described a shift in their approach. "We've made a lot of changes in our boat with the equipment and how we're rowing," she said, pointing to a focus on rowing longer and getting more distance per stroke. "We're still fine-tuning and figuring things out along the way, and what was awesome about the prelim today is that it was an opportunity to test and see if it was working and we're going to keep fine-tuning for the final as well."
The Men's Quad of Arie Magasiva, Callum Tutbury, Oscar Ruston and Ben Olifiers placed sixth in 5.58.83, with Italy taking the heat in 5.39.18.
