Olympic rowing champions retire

WELLINGTON - New Zealand's double Olympic gold medal-winning identical twins, Caroline and Georgina Evers-Swindell, said Thursday they would retire from rowing.

Their departure comes after they defended their double sculls gold medal at the Beijing Olympics following success in Athens in 2004.

The 29-year-old twins won the first of their double sculls world titles in Seville, Spain, in 2002 and repeated the feat in 2003 in Milan, Italy, and in 2005 in Gifu, Japan.

"Retiring now just feels right," Caroline Evers-Swindell said. "It's been a great time in our lives and we couldn't have done it without (coach) Richard (Tonks)."Georgina agreed that the timing was right.