Rowers on course

The New Zealand rowing contingent could be well satisfied with their efforts on the opening day of the Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games, with six of the seven crews in action progressing comfortably.

However, some of them were dubious about whether the racing should have gone ahead, because of the strong wind.

Single scullers Mahe Drysdale and Emma Twigg advanced impressively to the quarter-finals, both winning their heats easily. Twigg later indicated she felt the racing should have been postponed.

“You always want to be racing someone at their best,” she said. “At what point is it for the athletes? That’s the question for FISA and no doubt the team managers will be [discussing it] tonight.”

She said she had spoken to other rowers, who were as disappointed as she was.

Two world champion crews, men’s pair Eric Murray and Hamish Bond and women’s double scullers Zoe Stevenson and Eve Macfarlane, both won their heats and are into the semi-finals.

Bond and Murray looked as if they were always in control, but Stevenson and Macfarlane had to recover from a poor start and climb back from a distant last place.

The men’s lightweight men’s four of James Lassche, Peter Taylor, Alistair Bond and James Hunter won their heat and were third fastest qualifiers into the semi-finals. They were timed at 6min 03.34s. Denmark led the qualifiers with 5min 58.21s.

Robbie Manson and Chris Harris in the double sculls also qualified third. They had a tough battle with Azerbaijan in their heat, eventually prevailing by a whisker. Lithuania and Croatia were the fast of the men’s double sculls qualifiers.

The men’s quad sculls team of Nathan Flannery, John Storey, George Bridgewater and Jade Uru never looked comfortable and finished fourth in their heat. They now face a repechage.

The four were well behind three European combinations – Estonia, Ukraine and Germany. The New Zealanders looked as if they might finish fifth and last until the Canadian crew came unstuck near the end of the race.