Rowing pair about to become a triple

Mahe Drysdale and Juliette Haigh are excited about becoming parents. Photo / NZ Herald

Olympic rowers Mahe Drysdale and Juliette Haigh are celebrating a nappy Easter after revealing they are expecting their first child.

The news comes seven months after the golden couple wed under a guard of honour made from oars at a ceremony in a woolshed at their Cambridge farm.

Haigh confirmed yesterday she is three months pregnant and the baby is due in October.

"We are both very excited," she told the Herald on Sunday. "It is great news so soon after getting married and it will mark a new chapter in life for us both."

Haigh said the couple did not know the baby's gender.

"We want that to be a surprise," she said. "It is early days and we haven't been looking at any possible choices for names yet.

"I haven't had any strange cravings yet either. We are both really just very excited and haven't got into full baby planning mode yet or discussed what impact it might have on our careers."

Drysdale won gold at the London Olympics in 2012 and is the five-time world champion in the single sculls. Women's pair star Haigh was three-times world champion and an Olympic bronze medallist at the same London Games. She announced her retirement from rowing 16 months ago, unable to commit to a fourth Olympic campaign.

The pair began dating seven years ago. Almost 150 guests attended their Waikato wedding, and afterwards Drysdale told New Zealand Women's Weekly he was surprised how emotional he was. "I didn't cry but the tears weren't far away."