KEY POINTS:
Breakfast stayed down as Mahe Drysdale hit the training water yesterday, confident he has beaten the stomach bug that nearly grounded New Zealand rowing's leading Olympic medal prospect.
Drysdale scraped through to tomorrow's final in nerve-tingling style, clinging on to third place in his semifinal as the effects of four days of vomiting and diarrhoea took their toll.
He was sick again after that race but the symptoms since have been encouraging.
Rowing New Zealand high-performance manager Andrew Matheson said the triple world champion was "going better today".
His food had been digested and he had shown few ill-effects from a light session with his teammates.
Yesterday's programme was not much different from what he would be doing if he was fully fit, said Matheson.
"It'd be pretty light anyway. Everyone's had hard racing this week so you're just trying to recover your last reserves before you hit into it on Saturday."
The most important thing since Drysdale picked up the bug has been replacing lost fluids. The giant sculler reckoned he lost 4kg during the two worst days to fall below 100kg.
"He won't put all that weight back on but he should still race well," Matheson said.
Drysdale will lead the New Zealand challenge on "Super Saturday", the first of five consecutive finals involving New Zealand crews. His race starts at 7.50pm (NZ time) followed at 20-minute intervals by women's pair Juliette Haigh and Nicky Coles, men's pair George Bridgewater and Nathan Twaddle, women's double scullers Caroline and Georgina Evers-Swindell and the men's double scull of Rob Waddell and Nathan Cohen, who start at 9.10pm.
While battling for his health, Drysdale must also be planning his tactics, including how to approach his first start in an outside lane as a single sculler.
"It's difficult to see everyone else but they're going to struggle to see me. Hopefully I can maybe get a slip on the field and they won't know what I'm up to.
"If you get a lead it's a big advantage [but] if you're fighting it out at the finish you might not be in touch with what everyone else is doing."
Also starting in the unfamiliar lane six will be former Olympic double sculls champion Waddell, although he did not think the wide berth would be a factor.
"All six crews in the final have shown good speed right throughout the season at various times," he said. "I don't think you're going to get an arrow formation going down the course, it could be a blanket race for a long time. It's better to be in the outside lane than not be there."
The only New Zealand crew in a centre lane will be the Evers-Swindell sisters. Both pairs crews have drawn lane two.
- NZPA
