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AAP
AAP

On the rebound, rowers in strong World Cup performance

Australia's rowing team have capped off their World Cup series campaign with a strong showing in Switzerland as 29 athletes across six crews made it onto the podium.

The Lucerne regatta was their final international test before the world championships in Shanghai in September, as Australia look to rebound from a disappointing Olympic campaign last year when they won just a solitary bronze medal in Paris.

The Aussies finished third overall in the medal tally across the two World Cup regattas with two gold, three silver and one bronze medal.

The men's four made it back-to-back gold medals, again leading from the start as they held off late charges from Romania and Lithuania to win in five minutes 47.03 seconds.

"We didn't quite have everyone at Varese (in Italy); it's really strong competition here today and during this week, so it's nice to see where we're at," Australia's stroke Alexander Hill said.

Paralympian Erik Horrie also backed up a victory at Varese as he absorbed early pressure from France's Alexis Sanchez before powering away to comfortably win the PR1 men's single sculls in 9:01.16.

The women's four also impressed, surging out to an early lead before taking the silver behind the United States, holding off New Zealand and Great Britain.

The men's eight produced a courageous performance, attacking early and pushing the pace through the middle 1000m as they claimed the silver behind winners Germany with Romania third.

The women's eight was also involved in a tight tussle as they earned bronze behind winners Romania and the United States.

And Australia's PR3 mixed double sculls crew of Lisa Greissl and Sam Stunell returned to the podium with silver, closing the gap on the German crew that beat them in Varese.

"We've seen competitive racing right across the squad and that's exactly what we want before bringing the team together for Shanghai," said Rowing Australia performance director Paul Thompson.

Before that, several crews will shift gears and head to England for the Henley Royal Regatta, where they'll take on traditional side-by-side knockout racing on one of the sport's most historic courses.

"Henley's completely different," Thompson said.

"It's racing for pride and an experience every rower should embrace. They should enjoy it, take it one race at a time, and see how far they can go."

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