Grant wins as Kiwi crews race to A finals

Duncan Grant became the first New Zealand winner at the third World Cup regatta in Lucerne today (Saturday) with a start to finsih win in the Men's Lightweight single sculls.

The Wairau sculler - targetting an unprecendented third straight lightweight single scull title this year - saw off a late challenge from Mads Rasmussen of Denmark to take the win on the Rotsee.

Grant's blistering pace in the first 500 metres saw him take a clear water lead on the field and from that moment on he was in control of the race. He was still almost five sceonds ahead of Rasmussen at the final marker at 1500 metres, though the powerful Dane raced all the way to close the margin to just under two seconds.

Grant's success means he has a 100% record in all of the heats, semis and finals he has raced this season on the Rowing World Cup trail.

New Zealand will have seven out of its eight other crews in the A finals at the third World Cup regatta in Lucerne on Sunday.

All of the crews racing in the semi finals apart from the new look lightweight four made it into the main finals, a slight improvement over the memorable performance three weeks ago in Munich.

Women's double scullers Paula Twining and Anna Reymer were keen to make the A final at Lucerne after racing in the B final in Munich and they duly did that with a solid repechage.They led the field at halfway and although the chasing Italian double forged through to take the win, the Kiwi crew came home a comfortable second ahead of the British, Finnish, Swiss and Danish combinations.

Emma Twigg finished second again behind this season's pace setter Mirka Knapkova in her semi final. Despite tracking her rival all the way through the race, and retaining a good margin over the chasing scullers, Twigg has yet to demonstrate the speed she will need to beat Knapkova in a straight fight in 2009. The final on Sunday will give her that opportunity.

Mahe Drysdale was the only heavyweight single sculler in a busy field to dip under the 7 minute mark, his 6 minutes 58 seconds eclipsing other A final qualifiers Olaf Tufte, Tim Maeyens, Mindaugas Giskonis and Mahias Rohr. Significant for Mahe was that the semi final brought his first encounter this season with Czech Olympic silver medallist Ondrej Synek. Fifth at the first 500 metre mark after a very cautious start, Synek moved through the field confidently to take the runner up spot just a couple of seconds behind Drysdale. The men's single scull final - as always in this golden era of the category - is set to be another showstopper.

Men's double scullers Nathan Cohen and Matthew Trott continued their winning way with another very polished performance in their semi, winning as they pelased ahead of the French and Slovenian doubles. Germany won the other heat even more comfortably ahead of Estonia, with the British Olympic bronze medallists vanquished at Henley Royal Regatta by the Kiwi boys only just scraping into the A final with a third place secured by just three tenths of a second.

Both the men's and women's pairs qualified directly to the finals with heat wins yesterday, and the women's quad has a straight final. They finished fourth in the exhibition race yesterday and will need to find a couple of lengths over the course if they are to be in with a shout of repeating their impressive third place on their debut in Munich.

The lightweight four head to the B final after coming home fifth in their semi. They had dropped off the lead pack by the halfway mark and could not find their way back into the race, finishing ten seconds off a qualifying place. They and their coaches will be keen to see a step forward in the B final - which in this category will be just as competitive as the main event.

Results here