New Zealand's rowers have made an emphatic start to the 2011 season after claiming five gold, three silver and a bronze at the Hamburg World Cup regatta.
The men's and women's pairs, the men's heavy and light double and single sculler Mahé Drysdale all won their finals while women's single sculler Emma Twigg claimed a close second place.
Drysdale demolished a field that included Sweden's Lassi Karonen.
The pace is clearly there and with his back holding out in its first real international test since Karapiro 2010 Drysdale's quest for Olympic success looks back on track.
Twigg, rowing in the event that undoubtedly had the highest quality field of the entire regatta, took silver less than a metre behind Olympic and world champion Ekaterina Karsten and well ahead of the world champion Frida Svennson.
Predictably - the world champion men's pair of Eric Murray and Hamish Bond annihilated their opposition, and will now be eager to see what speed the British, and the returning Canadian Olympic silver medal winners from Beijing have to offer when they meet in the next world cup round in Lucerne.
The women's pair of Juliette Haigh and Rebecca Scown took a comfortable win, they too are likely to face tougher opposition in Lucerne, but they made the perfect start to 2011.
A perfect start too for world champion double scullers Nathan Cohen and Joseph Sullivan who cruised to victory after dominating the first half of the race.
World champions in 2009 in the light double Storm Uru and Peter Taylor also claimed gold putting injury worries earlier in the year behind them.
Ben Hammond, Chris Harris, James Dallinger and Carl Meyer were thrust into the men's four but still managed to claim silver with limited preparation.
On Sunday, the three-time world champion Duncan Grant got his season off to a good start with silver in the lightweight men's single sculls.
