KEY POINTS:
Former Olympic and world rowing champion Rob Waddell is doing his best to play down the battle between himself and current world champion Mahe Drysdale for the single sculls place at Beijing.
Waddell finally broke his silence on his rowing comeback after yesterday's convincing win over a world-class field, including Drysdale, in the single sculls final at a pre-season regatta at Lake Karapiro.
Waddell clocked a time of 6m 39.8s, only 3s off Drysdale's world best time over 2000m.
It was Waddell's first competitive hit-out since his Sydney Olympics triumph seven years ago, and was made all the more remarkable by the ease with which he beat Drysdale.
After the race, a slimmed-down Waddell, who has kept a very low profile over his return from America's Cup grinding duties with Team New Zealand, said the result had helped to reaffirm he was on the right track with his training, having only been back in the boat four and a half months.
Waddell, 32, who is still contracted to Team New Zealand, said his comeback had been driven by a strong desire to attend another Olympic Games.
"I'm not going to get in to the me versus Mahe thing too much. I came back because I want to be part of something positive in Beijing next year - that's my ultimate long-term goal.
"The urge to go to another Olympics has always been there, it's just that the timing seems right now. I thought, you're only young once and time whizzes by, and I've got another one, possibly two Games left in me."
Waddell's re-emergence in the sport after a seven-year lay-off gives the national selectors a headache.
They need to weigh up his form against that of Drysdale, who qualified the boat for Beijing with his world championship win in Munich in August.
Rowing New Zealand high performance manager Andrew Matheson said that because the weekend's regatta was so early in the season it would have little bearing on Rowing New Zealand's Olympic nominations.
There are still several steps in the selection process, and several regattas still to come before the national championships in late February from which a trial squad will be picked.
"It's an interesting result for sure, but I guess we've got to keep it in context, they're just coming through their base training and when we really get a good feel of where they're at would be later in the season," he said.
But the biggest challenge for Rowing New Zealand may be sorting out what to do with the one who misses out on the single scull.
New Zealand has qualified seven boats for Beijing, and it is possible that Waddell or Drysdale could link up with another crew - most likely the doubles.
Matheson said they needed to ensure they made best use of talent but any decisions on the make-up of crews for Beijing would be left until the trials in the opening week of March.
Rowing New Zealand had not sounded out Drysdale or Waddell about making the switch.
"There's been no discussion, we're really early in our selection process and it's just up to the athletes to go and do what they do on the water and over time the picture will evolve."
Waddell said he was open to the idea of joining another crew for Beijing.
He has been training with Rowing New Zealand and has had the opportunity to pair with Nathan Cohen and Matthew Trott in the double.
"There's boats there, there's lots of options and I'm very open minded. All I can do is train and do my best and the rest is up to the selectors really," said Waddell.
But he admits his preference is in the single sculls.
"The single suits me at the moment from a time perspective with sailing and a young family and a few other things going on."
Three-times world champion Drysdale, who had limited preparation for the race, said he was not concerned his single sculls berth in Beijing might be slipping from his grasp.
"I'm very happy with where I am right now in the season, I'm probably a lot ahead of where I've been in the last few years so there's no panic stations yet," Drysdale said.
"You've got to take the losses and learn from them and at this stage of the season I'll take as many losses as I can if it means winning later on."
