New Zealand score a bronze in debut event at World Championships.

New Zealand has made history by winning a bronze medal in the first ever Mixed Eight event held at a World Rowing Championship.

The crew of Alana Sherman, Oliver Welch, Ben Taylor, Campbell Crouch, Flynn Eliadis-Watson, Beckie Leigh, Juliette Lequeux, Isla Blake and cox Harry Molloy finished in 5 minutes 41.06 seconds behind Romania (5.34.46) and Italy (5.39.58).

Ben and Oliver had already won gold in the Men's Pair on Thursday, while Alana, Isla, Beckie and Juliette took bronze in the Women's Four on Friday.

The eight had just two training rows in the lead-up to today.

The sport's governing body is pushing to have the event included at the 2032 Brisbane Olympics.

"I'm a pretty big advocate because it's a seat for a coxswain," says Harry. "Like you see in athletics, that's the way forward for them in terms of getting viewership up, increasing revenue and costs down. "I think it's cool also bringing both genders together and doing something as one nation."

" I feel like everyone was getting behind it," says Alana. "And honestly, everyone that's been talking to me about World Champs has brought up the Mixed Eight."

If anyone was wondering how the composite crews would attack the final, the clue lay in the performance of the Netherlands 24 hours previously.

"Before the race, Flynn [Eliadis-Watson] spoke about really giving it socks in the first 700, 800 metres," says Harry. "It's a boat class where the watts required to increase output at that point is so exponential it's not funny. "Obviously, you can't just sprint and hope for the best, but it's a very hard boat class to bring back distance."

Their Women's Eight barely dropped below 42 strokes per minute on their way to a first World Championship title in the big boat.

Their Men's Eight did the same just minutes later, never under 40spm, smashing out a 5.27.67 to claim their first ever World Championship title in the big boat, out by almost the same margin at the 500m as well.

The same approach had worked for their Women's Quad on Friday.

The Dutch may well have tried to do the same thing in the heats of the Mixed Eight earlier on the final day, but with the four women in the boat racing their third event of the regatta, maybe the legs had had enough.

It was clearly the plan for Romania.

They led from start to finish in the final, never going under 40 and stretching their lead at every 500m mark.

Italy followed script, holding second all the way, while a quick start from New Zealand also laid the foundation for their result.

"We had a bit of a shocker in the heat," says Harry. "But we regrouped, changed the plan for the final, and focused on just swinging on it. We went off like a rocket, like I didn't expect to be that far up the field at 500. It made my life pretty easy."