Three gold and a silver for New Zealand at Rowing World Cup

New Zealand's rowers have produced several dominant performances to claim four medals at a rowing World Cup event in Austria. 

Current world champions Grace Prendergast and Kerri Gowler won the women's pair final by a staggering seven seconds, in a time of 7:08.53s.

 "The race was good considering this was our first one in Europe this year. We hope to see more of this and potentially step it up with our training camps on the way to the World Rowing Championships," Gowler said. 

Above: Gowler and Prendergast in action

The women’s double skull pairing of Olivia Loe and Brooke Donoghue then claimed gold in their division. The pair overcame a slow start with a strong finish, to take victory over The Netherlands by 2.45 seconds in 6:52.30s. 

“That was great as we wanted to just do our own race. We had a steady first 1000 meters and then pushed. Everyone is going to keep stepping it up so we will need to do the same,” said Loe. 

Above: The New Zealand women's double pairing with their gold medals

World record holder Robbie Manson followed in a dramatic single scull final. The 28 year old was placed third at the halfway mark, but dug deep to pass Germans Tim Naske and Oliver Zeidler to claim the win with a time of 6:44.96s.

"That was really hard work and I feel pretty tired right now.

"Towards the end, I was just putting in strokes and I managed to get past Naske. It's been a lot of hard work and a lot of nerves leading up to this so it feels pretty special." Manson told World Rowing.

Above: Robbie Manson

In the women's eight final the New Zealand crew were unable to catch race winners The Netherlands, finishing 1.78s behind the Europeans in 6:05.56 to take silver. 

New Zealand rowers will contest the final World Cup regatta of the season in Switzerland next month.