Rowers Eric
Murray and Hamish Bond have justified their red-hot favouritism to ease to
victory in the men's pair and claim New Zealand's second gold medal at
the London Olympics.
Murray and Bond maintained their cast-iron
record of never having lost in the event since teaming up in 2009 and winning
three world championships along the way.
Their victory on Friday followed gold for
the New Zealand
men's double sculls combination of Nathan Cohen and Joseph Sullivan the
previous day.
The direction of the wind across the
regatta venue of Eton Dorney in Buckinghamshire led to a redraw of the lanes.
It meant that, rather than racing down the
middle of the course, Murray and Bond were in an outside lane, with the other
semi-final winners, Britain's
George Nash and William Satch, immediately on the inside.
The New Zealanders, who had produced a
world-best time of 6min 08.50sec in their heat, were content to sit second over
the first 500 metres.
But they pulled effortlessly away over the
second quarter of the race.
By the 1000-metre mark, they were 1.51s
ahead of the rest of the field and they continued to open the gap between them
and their nearest pursuers.
They finished in a time of 6min 16.65sec,
4.46s ahead of the French pair of Germain Chardin and Dorian Mortelette.
Nash and Satch were third and they moved
across on the water to congratulate the winners, before Bond raised his arms in
triumph.
NZN