Rowing: Eight Kiwi boats to race for medals at World Championships in Bulgaria

  • 15/09/2018
Robbie Manson.
Robbie Manson. Photo credit: Photosport

Eight New Zealand boats will compete for medals at the World Rowing Championships in Bulgaria on Sunday and Monday (NZ time).

The men's quad, women's pair, lightweight women's double sculls and lightweight men's double sculls, all secured their spit in the finals on Friday, and a further four Kiwi crews move to the A final after a tough day's racing in Plovdiv, on Saturday.

Gold medal favourite Robbie Manson has scraped into the single sculls final after finishing third in his single sculls semi-final on Saturday (NZ time).

Mason crossed the line in 6m 45.22s, nearly two seconds behind winner Kjetil Borchn of Norway, with Harry Leask of Great Britain in second.

Germany, Lithuania and reigning world champion Ondrej Synek from Czech Republic have also qualified for Sunday's final.

Elsewhere, Chris Harris and John Storey came second their semi-final to reach the men's double sculls final. They finished with 1.5s behind Romania in 6m 8s.

Thomas Murray and Michael Brake will race for the men's pair gold after they just snuck into the final with a third-place finish in their heat.

They finished in 6m 22.2s, two seconds behind heat winners Romania and Spain in first and second respectively. 

World Champions Olivia Loe and Brooke Donoghue had to settle for second in their women's double sculls semi-final.

Loe and Donoghue fought back from fifth position at the 500m mark, to finish just behind the US in 6m 5.6s.

Both the women's and men's eight missed out on the A final, and will instead compete in their respective B finals.

New Zealand narrowly missed on a top-four qualifying spot in the women's race by less than a tenth of a second, while the men were off the pace, finishing fifth in their repechage.

Newshub.