Waipukurau School children had a surprise visit from double Olympic gold medallist Mahe Drysdale yesterday, who was in town at the invite of the school to speak at a fundraiser last night.
Earlier in the day it had been confirmed that he was taking a year's break, but he told the children he had one more race coming up in Wanganui in December against Croatian Damir Martin who he beat in a photo finish to take the gold at this year's Olympic Games in Rio.
"I am just deciding now whether to go to Tokyo but I do want to keep rowing, I love it," he said in answer to a barrage of questions ranging from "do you get nervous when you are racing?" to "do you get carsick?"
He told them that he was about their age, 8 years old, while watching the Olympic Games on TV that he first began dreaming of being an Olympian himself one day.
"Through school I tried lots of sports but wasn't good enough. It was when I started rowing at University that I discovered I was good at rowing boats backwards."