Single scull showdown: Spoilt for choice again

EXCLUSIVE: ROWING LEGEND ERIC MURRAY WRITES FOR STUFF

OPINION: New Zealand rowing once again has the best of problems – too many good athletes to put into one place.

A decade after the memorable face-off between Mahe Drysdale and Rob Waddell, the flipside will occur for Drysdale this summer when he faces the challenge of Robbie Manson to find out who’s New Zealand’s premier single sculler.

In early 2008, Waddell – the 2000 Sydney Olympic gold medallist – came out of hibernation for a three-race series against then three-times world champ Drysdale for the men’s single-scull spot at the Beijing Olympics.

During summer regattas, crowds lined the banks of Lake Karapiro to see Waddell go 3-1 up. In the national trials, the series was tied at 1-1 when a reoccurrence of Waddell’s atrial fibrillation sunk his hopes of winning, pushing him into the double sculls boat with Nathan Cohen.

Three-time Olympic medallist Drysdale took a break last year after his second consecutive Olympic gold in the most thrilling of finishes in Rio. He’s now back training with the summer squad.

Manson is a NZ team regular but relatively unknown to the general public. A consistent medalwinner at World Cup and world championship level, Manson had a breakout year in 2017 in the single scull vacated by Drysdale. He won both World Cup events and smashed Drysdale’s world’s best time by three seconds.

A subsequent injury and six weeks out of the boat left him unable to find that form at the world champs in the US.

So where does that leave Rowing NZ? After a review of the 2016 Rio Olympics – two gold and a silver – the athlete selection has changed to squad selection.

A ‘‘squad’’ of athletes is selected from each group: men’s and women’s sweep, men’s and women’s scull, then the final decision on the targeted crews will take place after the World Cup races in Europe.

Where does that leave an individual? More importantly, where does that leave two people openly targeting a specific position? Could this battle continue into July 2018 under this new model?

For the best result at the world champs at the end of August, that would be counter-intuitive – only one athlete can compete for NZ at the world champs, but World Cup races allow frequently utilised multiple entries from a country.

The ‘‘powers that be’’ will surely have started some closeddoor discussion.

There are two current selection policies. Whether the criteria are made public will be a different story, but it’s no secret that Drysdale, after the Mahe v Rob original version, pushed for the incumbent or a World Champion crew/person to gain ‘‘favourable treatment’’, with the focus more on a structured plan from October through to September to produce the best results at the world champs and not have to peak twice in a year – with the March trials – to make the selected team.

This ‘‘option’’ has produced consistent results from various small boat combinations such as Emma Twigg, myself and Hamish Bond, and the women’s double sculls combinations. This is the ‘‘pre-selected’’ version.

The ‘‘selection criteria’’ version has a publicly laid out policy of specific tests and races that an athlete must contest in order to be eligible for the selection trials. It involves 5km and 2km rowingmachine tests, a small-boat regatta, and the national champs. This option will favour Manson, as Drysdale, ever since a waterskier crashing into his back put him in hospital – and resulting ongoing arthritis – hasn’t produced a test result on the rowing machine since 2010.

Which way will Rowing NZ head? Will they allow for a ‘‘special treatment’’ approach for Mahe, who has deserved it? Or do they clean the slate, now that Robbie has gone faster than anyone ever in the single scull?

Drysdale only sees the single as his option to row. Does that mean if he loses to Manson, we could unceremoniously see one of the ‘‘GOAT’’ single scullers not selected for anything in the NZ team? The men’s double sculls combination of John Storey and Chris Harris are world champs – what may happen to them?

One of NZ’s top Olympic sports, rowing sits out of the public eye for most of the year. Our elite athletes gain snippets of coverage during World Cups, for a week at the world champs and then the bulk of attention during the Olympic Games every four years.

A Drysdale/Manson match-up would undoubtedly see the urge for live coverage again as something which would not only catch NZ’s attention, but the global rowing communities’. Let the keyboard warriors’ opinions come out. It’s fair game to comment – your taxes are entitling these athletes to train and compete for NZ.

Imagine too if Hamish Bond ditched the bike and joined the party. Bond got the better of both these scullers in 2014.

Put the regatta at Lake Karapiro on December 2 in your diary – it could provide a likely snapshot into the future.

❚ Eric Murray was one half of the New Zealand men’s rowing pair with Hamish Bond that was never beaten over eight years together, winning two Olympic golds and six world championship golds in that boat.