Tide turning in men’s single scull
OPINION: We may have witnessed a dramatic changing of the guard in the men’s single scull class.
At the second of three World Cup regattas in Austria last weekend, New Zealand’s Robbie Manson won gold, ahead of the German duo of Tim Ole Naske and Oliver Zeidler.
Absent from the race were two of the three medallists from the 2016 Rio Olympics – New Zealand’s Mahe Drysdale and and the Czech Republic’s Ondrej Synek.
So is it simply an overreaction that the podium trio in Linz may be three major contenders for gold at the Tokyo Olympics in 2020?
History may indicate so, but it feels Linz may yet be a turning point in a class where making a breakthrough is harder than predicting the World Cup winner.
The men’s single scull at Olympic Games is dominated by dynasties. Vyacheslav Ivanov of Russia won gold in 1956, 1960 and
1964; Pertti Karppinen (Finland) did the same in 1976, 1980 and
1984; Thomas Lange of Germany won gold in 1988 and 1992 and bronze in 1996. Olaf Tufte (Norway) won gold in 2004 and
2008; Drysdale, who took bronze in Beijing, then won gold in 2012 and 2016, while Synek has collected silver, silver and bronze at the past three Games.
So to suggest none of the Rio medallists will make the Tokyo podium is going against the strong tide of history.
But two of that trio are also trying to stave off the ravages of time.
Drysdale will be months away from his 42nd birthday when Tokyo hosts the Olympics; Synek will be drawing close to blowing out 38 candles.
Rio silver medallist Damir Martin of Croatia surprisingly missed making the A final at Linz but is expected to be to the fore at the world championships in September and aged 29, should be in the picture in Tokyo.
But the new guard, spearheaded by Manson, are making their cases. Manson is 28 while the German duo are pups in singles scull terms – Ole Naske is 22 and Zeidler is 21.
Manson is no rookie – he’s had two Olympic campaigns but is yet to win a medal in two crew boats; the quad and the double sculls.
With Drysdale on a break following the retention of his crown in Rio, Manson gained the single scull spot last year and made a spectacular international debut in the skiff when he set the world’s fastest time at a World Cup regatta in Poland, wiping out Drysdale from the record books.
He went into the world champs in the US as the gold medal favourite but an injuryplagued buildup played a part in a disappointing fifth-place finish.
So the knock on the Wairau club member is that he has yet to prove he can win at the biggest regattas – something Drysdale can’t be accused of.
The veteran’s health problems in Austria prevented a full episode of part one in the Kiwi dual duel in Europe between the three-time Olympic medallist and Manson, with selection in the New Zealand team for this year’s world championships in Bulgaria being given to the bestperformed sculler.
Even allowing for Drysdale’s woes, Manson was clearly superior – he was more than eight seconds faster in the heats (raced in a time trial format) and 5.57sec quicker in the quarterfinals.
That appears to replicate what happened in training sessions at Lake Karapiro prior to the NZ team’s departure. Manson has been the better athlete and was relishing the chance to prove it in Europe, while Drysdale was frustrated he was unable to find his best form.
Drysdale said even if he failed to make the world champs this year, he wouldn’t give up on his ambition to match Ivanov and Karppinen in Tokyo.
But it’s almost impossible to envisage Drysdale getting better over the next two years.
Two rowers who undoubtedly will are Naske and Zeidler, who are already fighting the same selection battle as their Kiwi counterparts. While World Cups allow more than one entry per nation, world championships and Olympics are restricted to one entry per country.
Naske has been viewed in recent years as the man to replace Marcel Hacker – the bronze medallist in Sydney 2000 and still competing in the double at Rio 16 years later – as Germany’s premier men’s single scull exponent. He won gold in
2013 and 2014 at world junior level in the double and single scull respectively, the Youth Olympic single scull crown in
2014 and gold in the double at the world under-23 champs in 2015.
Zeidler is the wild card. A former swimmer from a family with rowing history, the blond youngster only began the sport
18 months ago after using an indoor rowing machine as part of his swim training and first came to prominence when winning the men’s heavyweight erg class at last year’s World Games.
While it’s rowing against the past, it appears likely that the top three in Austria will be the ones to watch over the next two years.