Mahe's Mailbag- A good day at the Bosbaan

by Mahé Drysdale on 8 Jul 2007 It was a good day at the Bosbaan in Amsterdam for most of the kiwi crews!

New Zealand finished the day as the third most successful country overall just behind Great Britain and China, not bad considering the number of athletes we have.

I will start with a run down of my race and then go through all the other results.

Well as I said coming into this World Cup I was not quite where I needed to be in regards to my speeds at higher rates and in a final of the quality of the one in this race I was always playing catch up. I had hoped it would all come together this week and I could pull a special performance out in the final but I was dropped at the start and while I managed to claw my way back through the middle of the race to be up with Tufte, Synek and Hacker at half way in the end the pace was too much and I had to settle for fourth and my first time off the podium in the single.

At the end of the day, I raced the best I have this year and while I’m a little disappointed to be off the podium I still feel like I am well on track and in a better place than I had expected to be (without pulling out a miracle). In the next few weeks we will be moving into our next phase of training and by the world cup in Lucerne I should be well on track and back up to speed.

It was good to race everyone here and I now have a good gauge on the tactics and speeds of everyone in the field. Things have certainly moved on from last year with everyone in good shape and the pace of the race and the way people are approaching the race has certainly changed since last year. I think it is going to be very competitive and tight all year and you cant afford to write anyone off at this stage. I am currently reviewing my tactical approach and therefore the way I will train until worlds as it seems everyone is now capable of matching my pace through the middle of the race.

The winning time of 6:40 (in less than ideal conditions) with all 6 scullers within 6 seconds shows both the speed and quality of the field and in comparison to the other events it was the fastest and most competitive event at the regatta. So basically what I can take from it is I need to get back to where I was last year then have some work to do on tactics and improving further to make sure I can get back on top.

There are a lot of positives I have taken away from the regatta and the performances of the other New Zealand crews were fantastic, showing we are well on track especially as we have just got off the plane.

Those other results were, the lightweight men’s double finished in style with a convincing win in the C final to finish 13th, the men’s and woman’s eights both rowed B finals to finish 12th and 7th respectively. The lightweight men’s single was a battle between the two kiwis finishing with Gold and Silver and looking like the winner in Lucerne will be hard to beat at worlds. I was 4th as discussed, the woman’s pair took silver, the men’s pair gold, the woman’s double silver, men’s double 5th and the day was finished in style with the men’s four rowing through the Dutch in the last 250M to take gold and an impressive medal haul first up.

We are now back in Belgium and looking forward to getting out teeth into training with plenty of motivation for all crews after the first hit out.

Next challenge is Henley next week and with entries including Hacker and Campbell should be a very competitive one. Will be back next week with updates from Henley

Mahe