It was a medal rainbow day for New Zealand's rowers at the Paris Olympics on Thursday.
Women's double scullers Brooke Francis and Lucy Spoors won New Zealand's second gold medal of Paris 2024, while the Kiwi men's and women's fours claimed silver and bronze medals, respectively, at Vaires-sur-Marne Nautical Stadium.
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Francis and Spoors bided their time before surging to gold in the women's double sculls final at Vaires-sur-Marne Nautical Stadium on Thursday, matching the efforts of the Evers-Swindell twins in the same event.
For both, it was one higher step on the Olympic podium, with Francis - then racing as Brooke Donoghue - claiming silver with Hannah Osborne in the same event, and Spoors silver with the women's eight in Tokyo three years ago.
The pair made a patient start, sitting in fourth after 500m and third at the halfway mark. But they turned it on over the second 1000m, pulling up to and passing Romania, holding on to win by just 0.24 seconds in 6:50.45.
Two races later, the women's four of Kerri Williams, Davina Waddy, Phoebe Spoors and Jackie Gowler earned New Zealand's first bronze medal of Paris 2024.
While they could not match the pace of the gold and silver boats of the Netherlands and Great Britain, they won the tough battle for third with Romania, taking bronze by just 0.44 seconds in 6:29.08.
The Kiwis were fifth through the first 500m but moved up to third by the midway mark, going on to earn Gowler her second Olympic medal, having claimed silver in the women's eight at Tokyo 2020.
In the last final of the day, the men's four of Ollie Maclean, Logan Ullrich, Matt Macdonald and Tom Murray claimed New Zealand's second silver medal, bringing the team's medal total to five on Day 6.
The men's quartet went stroke-for-stroke with the United States crew, who claimed the country's first gold medal in the event since 1960, over the last 1000m.
After moving up from fourth to second in the second 500m, it looked like the New Zealand boat would overtake the Americans, who found another gear in the final 500m. The Kiwis finished in 5:49.88, just 0.85 seconds adrift.
In Thursday's other final, Robbie Manson and Jordan Parry finished a disappointing sixth in the men's double sculls, almost 10 seconds off the pace.
The pair fell behind immediately and never made a charge in a quick race won by Romania in a close finish. Manson and Parry were a distant sixth at the 1000m mark, but almost caught the fast-starting Spanish boat for fifth, finishing in 6:21.44.
Earlier in the day, defending Olympic champion Emma Twigg stormed into the women's single sculls final, with the best time.
Twigg won the second semifinal by almost two seconds in a time of 7 minutes 17.19 seconds. She has brought her time down almost 20 seconds at the regatta, from 7:36.97 in the heats to 7:26.89 in the quarterfinals.
Twigg described the race as "another step forward".
"It feels good to be in my fourth Olympic final and I'm looking forward to Saturday," she said. "At the start of the week, four races seemed a lot, but now I'm enjoying every race as the week, and potentially my career, is ending."
Tom Mackintosh will also race for gold on Saturday, reaching the men's single sculls final as the fifth-fastest rower to progress.
Mackintosh finished second behind Dutchman Simon Van Dorp in the first semifinal in the a time of 6:44.49. His time was the sixth-fastest of the semifinals, with the fourth-placed finisher in the second semifinal, who bettered Mackintosh, missing out.
Twigg will race for back-to-back golds at 8.18pm Saturday NZT, while Mackintosh will row at 8.30pm Saturday NZT.
Shannon Cox and Jackie Kiddle will also compete for medals in the women's lightweight double sculls at 10.22pm Friday NZT.
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