Robbie Manson confirmed his status as the best single sculls rower in New Zealand, after a crushing Mahe Drysdale in the men's single scull final at the Rowing World Cup at Lucerne, Switzerland.
With the winner between the Kiwi duo awarded New Zealand's spot at the upcoming World Championships in Bulgaria in September, Manson stormed home to win gold, while Drysdale could only manage fourth place on Sunday night (NZ time).
The 28-year-old Manson finished with a time of 6m 55.30s, more than four seconds ahead of Germany's Oliver Zeidler and three-time Olympic medallist Ondrej Synek of the Czech Republic.
"That was really hard out there," Manson told World Rowing.
"Ondrej took off and I just stepped it up progressively throughout the race, but was able to ease off towards the end.
“This is one of my favourite places to row, so it's great to have won here."
Manson's win was one of five gold medals won by Kiwis.
The surprise gold among that haul went to the New Zealand men's pair of Michael Brake and Tom Murray, who finished with a time of 6m 32.93s. They were 0.65s ahead of silver medallists France, with the Czech Republic only another 0.06s back in third.
"That was a little bit dramatic, I need to improve on my steering a little," laughed Murray.
"From now, we will try and work on our speed, but I'm glad that today we could have a good race."
The women's pair of Grace Prendergast and Kerri Gowler continued their dominant run, beating Canada by 0.4s.
"Really excited coming into the race, as we knew the Canadians were strong," Prendergast said.
"It turned out to be a great race. Lucerne is one of our favourite regattas, as it really embraces the sport and it feels like a home regatta to us."
The women's eight also claimed gold in 6m 06.17s, heading home Canada and the US.
New Zealand's last gold of the regatta was also comfortable, as reigning world champions Brooke Donoghue and Olivia Loe won the women’s double sculls by 2.6s.
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