N.Z. fours qualify

Press, 30 August 1985, Page 32

N.Z. fours qualify

NZPA staff correspondent Hazewinkel, Belgium

In sharp contrast to Tuesday, happy faces predominated in the New Zealand camp after the repechages at the world rowing championships at Hazewinkel, Belgium. Both the four-member crews, the coxless four and the quadruple scull, performed badly in their heats on Tuesday and the atmosphere in the boat park was tense as coaches and rowers looked ahead to repechages. The only exception was the eight’s coach, Mr Harry Mahon, whose terse prechampionship manner vanished after his team had qualified for the semi-finals. Now the coxless four coach, Brian Hawthorne, and the squad coach, Mr John White, has undergone a similar change. Their crews had not made life easy for them, both having to come from behind to clinch the positions necessary to stay in the championships.

The coxless four appeared to be on its way out of the competition when, needing to finish first or second to qualify for Sunday’s final, it was the last boat to reach the halfway mark. A big effort during the

third quarter took it past Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia into third place, and an exceptional 89.68 s final 500 m saw them power past Italy and take second. It crossed the line in six minutes 02.085.

The quad also started slowly. It was the last boat to complete the first 500 m, and though it overhauled Finland before halfway, the gap between itself and the leading Polish crew had grown by nearly 2s. Just after half-tway, the New Zealanders moved past Sweden into third place and stayed there until the end to go through to the semifinals, along with Poland and Norway. The New Zealand lightweight challenge ground to a halt when the national champion double scullers, Dale Maher, and Alan Rowe, finished fifth in their repechage. Maher and Rowe needed a top two placing to go through to the final and after a tremendous start looked to have it well within their grasp. But they faded badly in the final 1000 m, finishing in 6:51.56, 9.44 s behind the winners, Denmark.

Maher and Rowe’s time was 6s slower than their previous heat time.