Opinions divided over clash of rowing champs

Two  New Zealand rowing greats are divided on whether Mahe Drysdale and Rob Waddell should square off in a winner-takes-all race for the country's Olympic single sculls berth.

A potential Olympics trial race at March's national meet at Karapiro has Philippa Baker-Hogan and Dudley Storey buzzing as much as the rest of the country.

But Baker-Hogan believes the dream race may not be the best way to decide whether Drysdale or Waddell should row the single sculls in Beijing.

"That's the normal way, it used to be the old way, the tradition," Baker-Hogan, a single and two-time double sculls world champion, said yesterday of a one-off trial. "But at the end of the day they could turn up at the final, New Zealand championships, and it could be just terrible water, a side wind favouring different lanes and you know, you can't afford these days to pick somebody on one race."

Storey, who rowed at three Olympic Games and won gold and silver medals in the fours, takes a more cut-throat view on the rivalry.

"Personally, you just have a one-off race and race it like the Olympics," he said. "We know when the Olympics is and we know what day it is and we know exactly what time it is, right now, it's still eight or nine months away and that's what people work towards."

Storey said a one-off decider didn't have to be at the nationals, but was the only way to fairly separate two great athletes.

"Otherwise] it's a little bit like, let's have a million races shall we? I'm going to win 499,999 and you're going to win 500,001, what have we achieved? Nothing really.

"Nobody likes it, but that's the way it has to be. The Americans are a classic example, for their sprinters they have a trial on a day and the first three are the three that get selected.

"And if your name happens to be Carl Lewis and you're fourth, sorry ... you're not in it, you've got to find another event, you can go in the long jump or the high jump or the backwards walk."

But Baker-Hogan, who also won a silver medal in lightweight single sculls at the Edinburgh Commonwealth Games in 1986, said the best scenario would be if one of the rowers volunteered to focus on a bigger boat.

"I'm not hearing Rob say he definitely wants the single and it's very important what rowers want to do," she said. "It's all about their passion and focus. I would tend to think in this regard, the traditional way is not the best way. Already the selectors are showing that by having different guys in different boats together.

"Frankly, I think the athletes involved, New Zealand Rowing, the public, would want the best person to be lining up in the right boats at the Olympics."

Baker-Hogan did concede though, that she would be among the crowd on the banks of Karapiro if the single sculls selection did come down to one race at the nationals.

"Look, we'd love to see that race.

"The New Zealand champs have been a bit downplayed for a few years now with squads going all year around, so for New Zealand to see that standard of race would be exceptional."

- © Fairfax NZ News