The New Zealand men's coxless four of Thomas Murray, Logan Ullrich, Ollie Maclean and Matthew MacDonald. Photo: Photosport
The men's coxless four have won New Zealand's first medal at the rowing world championships in Belgrade, clinching bronze on Sunday.
The new combination of Matt Macdonald, Tom Murray, Logan Ullrich and Ollie Maclean underlined their progress after only racing for the first time eight weeks ago at a World Cup regatta in Switzerland.
That was Ullrich and Maclean's debut at a senior world event after competing for their respective universities in the United States.
The four then turned heads with a bronze medal at the Lucerne World Cup regatta and have made good on that promise with another podium in an even tougher test in Serbia.
New Zealand and the United States led through the first 500m with the season's top boat from Great Britain in third.
The British combination grabbed the lead at the 600m and never looked back, crossing in 6 minutes 04.35 seconds, followed by the US and New Zealand third.
Earlier, New Zealand qualified a women's coxless four boat for next year's Paris Olympics, after Jackie Gowler, Phoebe Spoors, Ella Cossill and Davina Waddy won their B final in convincing fashion.
There will also be a men's pair at the Games in Paris after Ben Taylor and Phil Wilson were third in their B-final.
Four New Zealand crews are in action on the final day of competition on Sunday night.
Robbie Manson and Ben Mason will try to qualify the boat for Paris in the B final of the men's double sculls and then medals go on the line in the A finals for Lucy Spoors and Brooke Francis in the women's double sculls, Thomas Mackintosh in the men's single sculls and Olympic champion Emma Twigg in the women's single sculls.
- RNZ