Fin's crew fall in final

BY STU PIDDINGTON

Former Roncalli College rower Fin Scott and his lightweight four failed to fire in the final at the Under-23 World Rowing Championships in Belarus.

The New Zealand crew of James Lassche, Graham Oberlin-Brown, Curtis Rapley and Scott tracked the strong British crew all of the way but couldn't match their semi-final form.

They finished sixth as the British, Italians and the United States took the medals.

New Zealand did bag two silver medals on finals day.

Julia Edward and Lucy Strack finished second in the women's lightweight double scull, with the women's eight matching their performance later.

Edward and Strack finished in 7 minutes 30.95 seconds, just two seconds behind the winning boat from Greece.

Third at 500 metres, they gradually established themselves in a competitive field that was giving chase to the fast-starting Greeks Triantafyllia Kalampoka and Christina Giazitzidou.

They made a big push with 800m as they cleared the chasing pack but the Greek girls hit the finish with Strack and Edward still closing in.

In the women's eights New Zealand's crew of Genevieve Behrent, Hayley Hoogeveen, Kylie Wright, Fiona Bourke, Jessica Loe, Zoe Stevenson, Tarsha Williams, Kelsey Bevan and Frances Turner showed real fighting spirit in a race that was a dogfight between the US, Canada and the Kiwis.

The Americans took the lead but the fight for second was never more than a few metres behind them between New Zealand and Canada.

A tussle for the silver raged in the last 500m, but the Canadians could do nothing about the New Zealand crew's finishing sprint to grab second in 6min 36.48sec, almost 5sec behind the Americans.

New Zealand crews made two other finals.

Lightweight sculler Leah Stanley was unable to overcome a slow start and finished fifth.

Robbie Manson, world udner-23 champion in the double scull last year with Joseph Sullivan but partnering brother Karl this year, finished fifth after fading out in the last 500m.

New Zealand results at world under-23 rowing championships at Brest, Belarus:

Women's Eight – 2nd

Women's lightweight double scull – 2nd

Men's coxed four – 4th

Men's double scull – 5th

Women's lightweight single scull – 5th

Men's lightweight four – 6th

Women's quadruple scull – 10th

- with NZPA

- © Fairfax NZ News