Top start for rowers at world championships
- Dave Worsley
- Sep 21
- 3 min read
Updated: Sep 23
Both New Zealand crews have advanced to the next stage of racing on day one of the World Rowing Championships in Shanghai, China.
The Men's Pair made the semifinals and the Women's Quadruple Sculls into the A Final.
Ben Taylor and Oliver Welch celebrated with a quiet fist bump after winning Heat Four of the Pair.
LATEST HEADLINES:
"That's our PB in the pair this season," said Taylor. "We had a 6 minute 17 at World Cup One [in June], so pretty happy. Oli said to me, 'Hey, we've got a 6.16.' So that was just a little response."
Even better news awaited them when they got off the water, as they'd recorded the fastest heat time overall.
Spain won heat one in 6m 21.19s; Romania, heat two in 6.20.62, France, heat three in 6.19.99. The New Zealanders' official time was 6.16.60.
"It definitely gives us confidence," said Taylor. "But at the same time, I think Oli and I just kind of stay in our own process. We don't really want to be looking at everyone else…we're not really too fussed by other times."
They withstood a challenge from South Africa in the early stages but were 2.46 seconds up through the first 1000m of the 2km course and extended that to 3.47s through the 1500m.
"Our third 500, we really laid it down and moved away from South Africa so we're pretty happy," said Taylor.
Taylor and Welch will race the semifinals on Tuesday (NZT).
Veronica Wall, Stella Clayton-Greene, Kathryn Glen and Ella Cossill started conservatively in Heat Two of the Women's Quad, going through the first 500m in fourth place behind Germany, the Netherlands and Poland.
The top two finishers would go straight to the final. "Germany took a few seats off us in the first couple hundred metres," said Cossill. "But it didn't feel like we got rattled at all."
Things only got calmer through to the 1500m mark.
"We didn't really settle into race pace," said Cossill. "We just kept it ticking along, and that really solidified our legs and got us moving in that middle 1000, just chipping away, we could feel ourselves inching back on those leading boats, which was really satisfying."
The New Zealanders went through the 1500m in third, just a length behind the leading Dutch crew, then Germany.
The final 500m a satisfying end to the race for Cossill. "We didn't really have a big wind, so we've got that in our back pocket for the final."
The Netherlands won in 6.13.02, Germany crossed in 6.14.13, New Zealand qualified for the A Final on Thursday, their 6.16.96 one of the two fastest times after the automatic qualifiers from the two heats.
It was a great debut at Elite international level for stroke Veronica Wall, said Cossill.
"She did a great job. She said that was the easiest she'd found stroking in any of the pieces that we've done. I think we all just sat back a little bit and let her do what she needed to do, and she found that as easy as a race can be. "There was no worry that she was going to get rattled. She's a racer."
