Kate Haines (bow), & Alana Sherman (stroke), New Zealand women’s pair, qualify for Paris 2024 Olympics at the last chance regatta in Switzerland. Photo: PHOTOSPORT
New Zealand Rowing has qualified one more boat for the Olympics with the women's pair securing their place at the last chance regatta in Switzerland.
Kate Haines and Alana Sherman finished second in the pair's final to grab one of the two Olympic places on offer.
Denmark started strongly with New Zealand in the pack, but the Kiwis came through in the second half of the race to finish just behind the Danes and well clear of the rest of the field.
"It's a very emotional moment," Haines said.
"We went out there to try and dominate the race. We knew it was going to be a tough battle so we had to make sure we got all our pushes right along the way and when we gained momentum we had to make sure to stay on to it."
New Zealand are the defending Olympic champions in the women's pair.
Haines and Sherman just missed Olympic qualification at last year's world championships, so general manager of high performance at Rowing New Zealand, Judith Hamilton, was happy to see them get through.
"They've certainly made gains from last year and are certainly a crew on the up so when they line up in Paris they'll be up for it," Hamilton told RNZ.
Kate Haines (bow), & Alana Sherman (stroke), New Zealand women’s pair, celebrate qualifying for the Paris Olympics at the last chance regatta in Switzerland, 2024. Photo: PHOTOSPORT
The women's quad of Laura Glen, Georgia Nugent-O'leary, Kathryn Glen and Isabella Carter finished sixth in their final.
The men's quad of Jack Ready, Zackary Rumble, Flynn Eliadis-Watson and Ben Mason failed to make their final.
Hamilton said the two quad crews are young and developing.
"The quads at the beginning of summer were more a long term plan, but we were hopeful they'd be able to get over the line, but they're both young and hungry for LA."
New Zealand will have nine boats competing at the Olympics out of a possible 14.
The eight boats that had already qualified for the Olympics will compete in the Lucerne World Cup regatta this weekend.
