KEY POINTS:
A week is a long time in sport.
It is an old sporting cliche but never has it been more true than in the see-sawing battle for single sculls supremacy between Rob Waddell and Mahe Drysdale.
All but written off after being comprehensively beaten by Waddell at the national championships eight days ago, Drysdale could today clinch the hotly contested berth in Beijing after drawing first blood yesterday in the best of three trial series.
Back in the boat that brought him gold at last year's world championships in Munich, the 29-year-old heaped the pressure back on Waddell with a convincing win by around one and a half boat lengths.
But if anything has been learnt from the epic summer-long dual between the two world-class rowers, it is that nothing will be certain until the ink is dry on the selectors' Olympic nominations.
Even Drysdale is loath to claim any psychological advantage. He said with Olympic dreams on the line it won't be over until it is over.
"I'm one-nil up and this is what counts, but Rob's not going to let me have it, he's a fierce competitor," Drysdale said after yesterday's win.
"As soon as I underestimate him I'm going to lose, so I've got to refocus and make sure I go out and do something even better."
After allowing Waddell to get away to a flyer at the national championships, Drysdale said it was important for him to start yesterday's first trial strongly. The pair were neck and neck until the 1000m mark, but Drysdale was able to pull away over the latter stages of the race to claim the win in front of a small but vocal crowd on the shores of Lake Karapiro.
The result was clearly a relief for Drysdale, who punched the air as he crossed the line. He later admitted he was plagued by doubt before the race.
"I suppose when you have a bad race leading up to it you're never quite sure that you can actually pull it off and really today put that to rest that when it counts I can really come out and do what I need to do."
Drysdale's remarkable reversal of form following last week's disappointing performance at the national championships had led to suggestions the Auckland-based rower may have been foxing and holding back for the trials.
But he has firmly dismissed such notions.
"That was just a bad race. That happens you know, you go to work and have a bad day sometimes," Drysdale said. "Unfortunately, last week was one of the most public stages I've ever had a bad race.
"Usually in the past when I've had a bad race, no one knows about it because it's in training or one of our World Cup series of races and I go out and make sure I right it the next day."
Waddell is keeping quiet over how he plans to right his performance today.
The Sydney Olympic gold medallist declined to speak to the media at Karapiro but went through a lengthy debrief at the lake edge with coach Mike Rodger.
Drysdale said he expects Waddell to throw everything at him today and will need to adjust his own strategy accordingly.
Should Waddell win today, the third trial race will be held tomorrow. The sculler that loses will then join the rest of the trials for potential selection into another boat.
