The success of the New Zealanders was the first time any country had won four golds at any world championships since the former
East Germany in 1987, an achievement which prompted New Zealand's largest newspaper,
The New Zealand Herald, to scream "FOARSOME" in a banner headline. New Zealand has a population creeping just over 4,000,000—roughly a fifth of the population of
Metropolitan New York—but is internationally recognised as regularly punching well above its weight in international sporting competition. New Zealand has previously won four
Olympic golds in a single sport (
canoeing) at a single games but that was over two days on
Lake Casitas at the
1984 Los Angeles Olympics. The previous shortest time between winning gold medals was less than an hour when the great
Peter Snell (
800 m) and
Murray Halberg (
5000 m) triumphed at the
Rome Olympics in 1960. On this magic 45 minutes occasion, New Zealand had five teams in the rowing finals, an achievement that astonished the international rowing fraternity at Gifu. New Zealanders at home in New Zealand were hoping that maybe two gold medals would be achievable. But in only 45 minutes, the New Zealanders won four golds and the New Zealand flag proudly flew four times as the
national anthem was played four times in succession. The four victories were: •
Mahé Drysdale of
Tauranga, in the men's single sculls, won gold from the current Olympic champion,
Olaf Tufte, of Norway. New Zealand was searching for a single sculler to succeed
Rob Waddell who had won the world championships in 1998 and 1999 and a gold medal the
Sydney Olympics, and unexpectedly, here he was. •
Juliette Haigh and
Nicky Coles, in the women's coxless pair, won from Australians
Natalie Bale and
Sarah Outhwaite. It was vindication for Haigh and Coles who embarrassingly fell into the water at the
2004 Olympics at
Athens and therefore could not display their talents. •
George Bridgewater and
Nathan Twaddle, in the men's coxless pair, defeated South Africa with Italy third. • Identical twin sisters
Caroline and
Georgina Evers-Swindell won the women's double sculls, defeating Bulgaria, with Australia third. As they had previously won world titles, and the gold medal at Athens, they were confidently expected to perform well and did not let their legion of New Zealand fans down. The men's coxless four of
Donald Leach,
Carl Meyer,
Eric Murray and
Steven Cottle finished sixth in their final. ==FISA awards==