World champions Ben Taylor and Oli Welch head into the Men's Pair A Final at the World Cup in Seville tonight (NZT) feeling sharper than they did at the same point last year, with Romania looming as the main threat once again.
Both crews won their respective semifinals, the New Zealanders clocking 6 minutes 27.76 seconds and Romania 6:23.37. The Romanians have made a crew change since claiming silver five seconds behind Taylor and Welch at last year's world championships, and Oli acknowledges they look quick. "They seem to be going as quick or even quicker. But it's a bit hard to say, to be honest, since we haven't raced them yet."
What he is confident about is where the New Zealand pair sits heading in. "Pretty excited for the final. I think if we have our best race we're in a good position. The semi probably wasn't our best race, we've got a few things to work on, but it's not far off." Having a first full summer squad together, rather than linking up in April as they did last year, has made a tangible difference. "Individually we're probably both doing better ergs, a bit stronger in the gym." The upshot, in Oli's words: "Fitter, faster, stronger!"
The Men's Four of Fred Vavasour, Campbell Crouch, Harry Fitzpatrick and Josh Vodanovich also secured an A Final berth in just their second race together, finishing third in their semifinal in 5:59.05 behind the Netherlands (5:54.22) and France (5:55.65).
Fred, who stroked the Men's Eight to silver at last year's U23 World Championships, is relishing the steep learning curve. "Coming out of Under 23s straight into the Elite Four, it feels like it's all happened really quickly." He sees the newness of the combination as an advantage. "Because we're so young the progression can be quite steep, but there's a lot we can figure out having only just come together so the gains we do make can be a bit bigger." The lack of external pressure helps too. "I guess there's not so many expectations around our performance, which is quite nice. You can just row to the best of your ability without having a heap of pressure."
Eva Hofmans and Sophie Egnot-Johnson finished second in the Women's Double C Final in 7:18.40, four seconds behind France. A confusing GPS tracker read, apparently disrupted by bridges crossing the course at the 250m and 1250m marks, briefly had squad coach Tom Stannard believing the pair had staged an extraordinary comeback from nine seconds down at the 500m mark. In reality they were in contact throughout.
For Hofmans, racing in her first senior event, it was a solid start after a difficult few years in the United States. "I got through the last two years by telling myself, 'I know I'm good at rowing in New Zealand, and I'm going to keep going and I'm going to prove myself.'" She is clearly on her way.
Ben Mason and Finn Hamill finished fourth in the Men's Double C Final in 6:31.30, won by former Olympic champions Valent and Martin Sinkovic of Croatia in 6:24.46. Mason was measured about what the result revealed. "We medalled in two World Cups last year and then this year we're in a C Final and not much has really changed, so it just goes to show how good the competition is and it creates good racing and good spectating."
The Men's Quad of Arie Magasiva, Callum Tutbury, Oscar Ruston and Ben Olifiers won their C Final in 6:10.26, beating Venezuela after taking a more measured approach than their heat. "Once we got the boat moving, we kind of just let it sit there and then took it down into our race rhythm," says Arie. The crew has only been together three months since nationals. "We know where the goal is and now we're just looking to pick off those crews one by one and get faster and faster."
Katie Lush and Juliette Lequeux, a new Women's Pair combination, finished fifth in their semifinal and race the B Final tonight at 7.10pm, the first New Zealand crew on the water.
