Olympic champions Hamish Bond and Mahe Drysdale have been named in the men's sweep squad for this year's international rowing season.
Bond announced his sudden return to the sport last month after pursuing a career-change with cycling following the Rio de Janeiro Olympics in 2016.
Bond told 1 NEWS at the time he wanted to be part of the men's rowing eight, a boat with a strong history in this country.
For Drysdale, on the other hand, his selection comes after failing to win back the single sculls seat from Robbie Manson.
Both men were on the men's eight coach Tony O'Connor's radar before today's naming.
"We've had some talks, some good talks," O'Connor told 1 NEWS. "I've caught up with the two of them."
Drysdale and Bond have been named as part of a 14-man squad with O'Connor and Gary Roberts named as the coaches.
"If you have legends in a crew - who set the bar really, really high in terms performance, but also personal responsibility - you can't help but drag everyone else up to that level.
"In a lot of the cases you aren't even dragging them. They'll do it anyway. If you've got a guy beside you pulling five seconds faster than you on the erg, you're going to do that.
"You learn by looking at your legends, at your heroes don't you? And obviously those two are heroes to a lot of people."
Today's announcement at Lake Karapiro will see 51 Kiwi rowers represent New Zealand at World Rowing Cup and World Rowing Championship regattas.
The elite team will now remain at Lake Karapiro to train before departing overseas to contest the 2019 World Rowing Cup II in Poznan, Poland in June and World Rowing Cup III in Rotterdam, Netherlands in July.
The World Rowing Championships team will be announced after World Rowing Cup III.
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