Julia Edward 3rd in heat at London Olympics …

NZ rowing effort cools down at Eton Dorney

STUFF.CO.NZ; MARC HINTON IN LONDON .Last updated 00:20 30/07/2012

http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/olympics/rowing/7372937/NZ-rowing-effort-cools-down-at-Eton-Dorney

 Ayling and Edward were far from despondent as they headed for an extra round

of action. They may have been forced into third by the fast-finishing Danes but a

closer inspection of times showed their 7:02 would have been good enough to win

either of the other two heats.

"It's good to get the nerves out of the way," said Ayling. "We're not disappointed

but we're not over the moon either we didn't get through to the semi ... but the

repechage can allow us to put into place what we need to work on and can also

give us that confidence that will help us to come through."

Edward felt it was important to keep things in perspective at this stage of the

 regatta. "Anything can happen at the Olympics so we just need to do what

we can do and not worry about everybody else," she said.

"We're just going to treat [the repechage] as another race and just build our

confidence a bit. The more races the better I’d say”.

Both crews have the pedigree to kick on from this. Uru and Taylor have been

together since Beijing, have one world title and a string of placings, and remain

well in the game.

And though Ayling and Edward are a new combination, their results this year

have been spectacular. They set a world's best time in their heat of the Lucerne

 regatta, before going on to finish second in the final, and also won the final

pre-Games hitout in Munich. The repechage should be a doddle for them.

- © Fairfax NZ News