Drysdale through despite stress

Defending champion Mahe Drysdale's pre-race stress levels rocketed to unprecedented heights as he was yellow-carded then forced to halt his single sculls semifinal due to technical difficulties at the rowing world championships at Lake Karapiro yesterday.
He had arrived at the race start without country and world rowing stickers on his boat, a mandatory requirement in every race.
The race was delayed while officials fixed the stickers to Drysdale's shell, but less than 100m into the race he raised his hand in the air, indicating a technical problem.
The race was halted, and the international umpire checked the New Zealander's equipment before deciding to restart the race with all crews.
Drysdale went on to record a solid win over in-form Czech Ondrej Synek, making every split a winning won in recording 7min 12.74sec, 2.34sec ahead of Synek with Chiana's Liang Zhang a distant third.
A philosophical Drysdale said afterwards it was his responsibility to make sure the stickers were on his boat.
"It was ultimately my responsibility to have the stickers on my boat," he said.
Drysdale said the first 100m of the 2000m race were designated as a breakage zone, where it was possible to halt the race by raising a hand if a rower had equipment problems.
The problem lay with the recently affixed stickers, as they hadn't been put on above the water line. "The umpires and starter are responsible, and they were happy it was a legitimate breakage, so you just get on and race," Drysdale said.
The four-times world champion's title defence has been disrupted by a disc injury suffered in March, limiting his racing and making training an exercise in pragmatism.
Drysdale eased through his heat on Monday in 6min 48.49sec, while Synek clocked the fastest heat time with 6min 47.90sec.
The men's single sculls has drawn one of the strongest fields at the championships: as well as Synek, Drysdale has Norway's 2008 Olympic gold medalist Olaf Tufte and last year's world championship silver medallist Alan Campbell (Britain) to fight off.
Tufte and Campbell went head to head in the second semifinal, with the Englishman easing away to a 7min 10.07sec win, with Tufte 2.25sec slower in second place.
Drysdale noted the results with interest, but was wary of putting to much importance on times or placings.
"You're never going to show all your cards until the final," he said. NZPA