New Zealand largest rowing team to attend an Olympics has its eyes set on an equally big medal haul.

Rowing New Zealand yesterday named 26 rowers and 11 boats to make the trip to London in July – with the proviso of adding two more boats and another 13 crew members should they get through a pre-Olympic qualifying regatta.

With nine current world champions among the squad members, the representation looks like the best possible chance for medallists in New Zealand's contingent for the 2012 London Olympics.

Mahe Drysdale will be seeking gold after his bronze at Beijing in 2008 (when he fell ill before racing his final) while three-time world champion men's pair Hamish Bond and Eric Murray are aiming for their first Olympic gold together after being part of the men's four that failed to make the A final in Beijing.

"We've just been training away as hard as possible," Murray said.

"Now we just need to take a minute and refocus on where we are heading and how we want to get there and focus on that for the next 20 weeks' training to make sure that we do improve so that when we do get to the Olympics we'll be in the best shape possible."

Also named were dual defending world champs Juliette Haigh and Rebecca Scown in the women's pair and Nathan Cohen and Joseph Sullivan in the men's double sculls.

Yesterday's announcement proved to be a coup for Rotorua-based lightweight sculler Julia Edward.

This Olympics will be her first as she made the lightweight double sculls combination alongside Louise Ayling, validating years of hard work.

"It's just everything that I've been working for for the last couple of years and it's all just happening now so I'm really stoked," she said.

One of three serious contenders for the two seats alongside Ayling and Lucy Strack, who represented New Zealand and qualified the boat for the Olympics at last year's world champs in Slovenia, Edward shone at the national championships two weeks ago by winning the women's single sculls event.

Then, at trials this past week, her solid work with Ayling clinched her the spot, leaving fellow lightweight Strack to miss out on the London-bound team.

"We actually row quite well together," Edward said about Ayling, who won silver in the women's lightweight single scull at the 2010 world champs at Lake Karapiro.

"We haven't done much together but as soon as we get in the boat, it just seems to click so I think we're going to have good things to look forward to."

The 2009 world champions Storm Uru and Peter Taylor will compete in the men's lightweight double scull, taking the total number of current and former elite level world champions in the New Zealand Olympic rowing team to nine.

Emma Twigg, world bronze medallist in 2010 and 2011, was selected for the women's single scull, while Fi Paterson and Anna Reymer, bronze medallists in 2011, will remain in the promising women's double scull, the boat in which New Zealand won Olympic Gold in Beijing and Athens in 2004.

The women's squad remains in the bronze-medal winning combination of 2011 with Eve Macfarlane, Fiona Bourke, Louise Trappitt and Sarah Gray.

There are new lineups for the two other qualified boats – the men's four and the men's quad. The men's four, coached by Dave Thompson, consists of Sean O'Neill, Chris Harris, Jade Uru and Tyson Williams. The men's quadruple scull crewed by Robbie Manson, Matthew Trott, John Storey and Michael Arms, has Mike Rodger as coach.

HOW THEY LINE UP

New Zealand Olympic rowing team:

Men's single scull: Mahe Drysdale

Women's single scull: Emma Twigg

Men's pair: Eric Murray and Hamish Bond

Women's quadruple scull: Eve Macfarlane, Fiona Bourke, Louise Trappitt and Sarah Gray

Women's pair: Juliette Haigh and Rebecca Scown

Women's lightweight double scull: Julia Edward and Louise Ayling

Men's double scull: Nathan Cohen and Joseph Sullivan

Men's lightweight double scull: Peter Taylor and Storm Uru

Women's double scull: Fi Paterson and Anna Reymer

Men's quadruple scull: Robbie Manson, Matthew Trott, Michael Arms and John Storey

Men's four: Sean O'Neill, Chris Harris, Jade Uru and Tyson Williams