Duo aim to impress for Beijing

Southland rowers Nathan Cohen and Storm Uru will take their first tentative step towards their Olympic dream today.

The pair will line up in the KRI 1 preseason regatta at Lake Karapiro with the heats held today followed by finals tomorrow.

It is an event that in most years does not even raise a ripple among the rowing fraternity.

However, with rowers jostling for spots at the Beijing Olympics in August, as well as a mouth-watering showdown in store between world-class competitors Rob Waddell and Mahe Drysdale, the usual low-key event has quickly gained interest.

It will be the first time the two world-champion rowers will go head to head at a race regatta with the result expected to go a long way to indicating who will claim the one New Zealand spot on offer in the single sculls at Beijing.

Cohen will team up this weekend with regular doubles partner Matthew Trott in the double and the pair will join Waddell and George Bridgewater for the quad races.

Cohen will also compete against Waddell and Drysdale in the single but the Southlander's sights remain on a spot in the double sculls at Bejing next year. Waddell's return to rowing after a seven-year break has added extra spice to the national selections including Cohen's Olympics aspirations.

Waddell is tipped to be too quick for Drysdale, which may see the 32-year-old claim the singles berth ahead of the current world champion at Beijing.

This would have the selectors searching for a place to fit Drysdale in at the Olympics with the most likely option to have him team up with Cohen in the double.

While the selection talk is already starting to heat up despite being more than eight months out from the Olympics, Cohen stressed yesterday there was a lot of combination juggling going on and he was not taking any selection for granted.

"I see the double as being wide open so I just need to make sure I'm on top of my game to get a place in the double," Cohen told The Southland Times.

There might not be as much hype surrounding the lightweight double this weekend but Uru is still eyeing the preseason meet starting today as another chance to impress on the road to Beijing.

With world lightweight single champion and Uru's regular doubles partner Duncan Grant carrying minor injury problems, Uru will join Peter Taylor in the lightweight double at Lake Karapiro this weekend.

- © Fairfax NZ News