KEY POINTS:
There is virtually no risk in picking Rob Waddell for the Olympic Games according to Rowing New Zealand medical director Chris Milne.
Waddell's bid for the single sculling berth at Beijing spluttered when he suffered the recurrence of a long-standing heart condition on Lake Karapiro while losing the deciding trial race to Mahe Drysdale.
The New Zealand rowing team to compete at Beijing is named tomorrow morning and speculation now surrounds whether Waddell will win selection in another crew. And if so, who will make way for him.
Milne, the New Zealand health team leader when Waddell won gold at the Sydney Olympics eight years ago, was "99.8 per cent" sure that Waddell's atrium fibrillation - an irregular heart beat - condition would not resurface if treated correctly.
"I'd be confident that with medication in the appropriate dosage before Beijing, he'd be able to compete," Milne told Radio Sport.
"He's been fine up until now and they've had some titanic battles.
"The extreme mental pressure is maybe the thing that tipped the balance on this occasion. Who knows? We may never know."
Waddell was on "big doses" of medication to regulate his heart rate in the leadup to his Sydney triumph, according to Milne.
He went off the medication and endured no problems in seven subsequent years as grinder for the Team New Zealand America's Cup yachting team.
Milne said the yachting role was more anaerobic and less "sustained" than rowing.
Those who speculated that Waddell's health would be a risk at Beijing needed to be aware that the condition was surprisingly common among top athletes, Milne said.
"There's probably too many drama queens out there," Milne said.
"For somebody who's got a superbly-functioning heart like he has, it's basically like pulling a couple of spark plugs out of a V8 halfway down the course.
"You have to treat each case on its merits, it's subtly different for each athlete."
Milne said Waddell's dramatic loss of weight in his return to rowing was unlikely to have created the problem in which the upper part of the heart - the atrium - goes into a "chaotic rhythm" meaning the bottom part of the heart must pump blood around the body.
He spoke to Waddell after yesterday's outcome and indicated an operation was unlikely five months out from the Games as it forces the 33-year-old to spend more time away from his young family.
"He's obviously had a huge emotional upheaval in the last 24 hours. I just wanted to try and be as supportive as I could," Milne said.
"He's in remarkably good shape when you consider what he's been through, we just wish him all the best in terms of getting into another boat."
With three-time world champion Drysdale now all-but guaranteed the single sculls seat, a place in another boat would probably be sought for Waddell if he and the selectors are as confident as Milne about his condition.
The other men's crews already qualified for Beijing are the pairs, double sculls and fours.
It seems unlikely the world champion four of Carl Meyer, James Dallinger, Eric Murray and Hamish Bond will be tampered with.
Former world pairs champions and silver medallists at the Munich world champs last year, Nathan Twaddle and George Bridgewater would also be unlucky to be split.
The most pressure is on double scullers Nathan Cohen and Matthew Trott who snuck into Beijing with a sixth placing at Munich.
- NZPA
