Lofty Olympic goals ahead for New Zealand in Europe

By Greg Stutchbury WELLINGTON (Reuters) - Rowing New Zealand's ambitious plans to plant a marker ahead of the 2016 Rio Olympics begin in earnest on Friday with the departure for Europe of a team intent on securing berths in all 14 classes at next year's Games. Germany was the only country to have contestants in all 14 categories at the last Olympics in London, while New Zealand had 11 boats. Australia and Britain had 13. "It's a real challenge to get 14 boats qualified," RNZ's high performance manager Alan Cotter said via telephone from Cambridge, about 150 kilometres south of Auckland and where the organisation bases its centralised programme. "Trying to qualify 14 boats has been a long term goal (but) ... we believe that we give the sportspeople who are interested in rowing the best chance to get to the Olympics and to get a medal." The team will race at two World Cup regattas in Varese in Italy and then Lucerne in Switzerland before the world championships in Aiguebelette, France from Aug. 30-Sept. 6, where they have the opportunity to qualify for Rio. Eight of the boats need to finish in the top 11 in Aiguebelette to qualify for Rio, while the men's and women's single sculls need to finish in the top nine and the men's quad in the top eight. Cotter said big boat crews of the men's and women's eights had the toughest path to qualify, having to finish in the top five. "Getting in the top five is a big challenge, but if you do that then you're pretty close to getting a medal so it's quite tight," he said. New Zealand's recent success at world championships and the Olympics -- they won three golds and two bronzes in London -- has come in the small boats, a strategy that allowed them to meet targets that ensure consistent government funding. RNZ will receive NZ$19.6 million ($13.78 million) from High Performance Sport New Zealand over the current Olympic cycle, with medals at global events key performance targets. The move to select big boat crews was due to the number of young athletes coming through, Cotter said, although RNZ did not have enough funding for the programme and have relied on commercial sponsorship for the men's and women's eights crews. That funding was confirmed through until the Tokyo Games in 2020. "We have the long term goal to stay in the eights and we do have quality young rowers coming through the programme and why we are committed to the eights," he said. "We want these eights to go through to Tokyo. We're not putting our foot in the pond this year and then pulling out if we don't qualify. "We want to go right through and develop these athletes because we are sending the message to the younger rowers that there is another boat, there is another pathway." ($1 = 1.4227 New Zealand dollars) (Editing by xxxxx)