Radio New Zealand - Te Reo Irirangi o Aotearoa

Six-medal haul for New Zealand in final World Cup regatta

Updated at 1:06 pm on 18 June 2012

The New Zealand rowing team finished with three gold and three silver medals in the final World Cup regatta in Munich overnight, the final test before the London Olympic Games.

The world champion pair of Eric Murray and Hamish Bond ended the World Cup series unbeaten for the third season in a row and head to London unbeaten since the last Olympics.

In contrast, Julia Edward and Louise Ayling took their first World Cup gold, doing it the hard way in the lightweight women's double skull coming home a third of a length ahead for an impressive win.

A lead of half a second at 500 metres was another turnaround from Lucerne for lightweight men's double skullers Peter Taylor and Storm Uru and gave them the springboard they needed for a superb win - New Zealand's third of the day.

Nathan Cohen and Joseph Sullivan bounced back to the front after the disappointment of Lucerne with second place from the outside lane in the men's double sculls.

Emma Twigg took a solid second place behind Ekaterina Karsten, the 39-year-old double Olympic and six-time world champion in the women's single skulls.

In the men's event Marcel Hacker, the 2002 world champion, took his first World Cup win in years and proved he could be a factor in London too.

However the top three scullers from Lucerne, including Mahé Drysdale, were all missing from the final.

A quick start by world champion pair Rebecca Scown and Juliette Haigh was not enough to contain the British World Cup series leaders and Lucerne winners Heather Stanning and Helen Glover, with the New Zealanders finishing second.

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