big boat win one-off: evers-swindell
Despite being part of a Waikato University women's eight that overpowered Australia on Saturday, Georgina Evers-Swindell is in no hurry to make the big boat a permanent fixture.
The Australian eight included four of the rowers who won the world championship eights in Gifu, Japan, a week ago but they were outclassed by a crew that included the Evers-Swindell twins, Juliette Haigh and Nicky Coles.
The sight of an eight beating Australia brought back memories of the glory days of 1972 when New Zealand won gold in the men's eight, lending credence to the idea there are enough quality women rowers to qualify an eight for Beijing.
But Georgina Evers-Swindell was happy to leave it a one-off.
"I guess that's the selectors' call," she said.
Evers-Swindell said her aim was to concentrate on the double, the event in which she won an Olympic title with her sister, Caroline, in Athens last year.
"The double is my preference," she said.
"It (an eight) would possibly mean doubling up and I don't know how many people are capable of doubling up."
Evers-Swindell said the problem with doubling up was shown in Gifu when the world championships were compressed because of a tornado, meaning rowers ended up in more than one event on the same day.
In Saturday's race on the Waikato River the Australian crew went out hard, taking an early lead but Waikato edged past just before the Fairfield Bridge.
From there they continued to extend their lead to win by six boat lengths at Victoria Bridge.
"It was long but it was satisfying because the competition was tough," Evers-Swindell said.