KEY POINTS:
Mahe Drysdale's dream of Olympic gold was a blink away from disaster on the Shunyi rowing course last night.
The three-time world single sculls champion squeaked into Saturday's final, triumphing over vomiting and diarrhoea which have left him off colour throughout the Beijing regatta, drained him of energy and melted 4kg off him since Sunday.
Drysdale, and the other four New Zealand crews striving for places in their finals yesterday, needed to finish in the first three.
He just got there in third spot, pipping fast-finishing Greek Ioannis Christou by a sliver, a mere 0.45s.
Two other Kiwi crews qualified for the finals.
Coxless pair George Bridgewater and Nathan Twaddle were second in their semifinal, and double scullers Rob Waddell and Nathan Cohen were third, again with little to spare.
Drysdale became ill on Sunday, and yesterday had to battle to keep alive the prospect of gold at the weekend.
"It's not the perfect preparation, is it?" he said last night.
"I've been forcing myself to eat and drink, but it keeps coming up faster than it's going down.
"It does take a massive amount out of you."
The 29-year-old Aucklander was in front at the 1500m mark, but then trouble struck.
"At about 400m to go, suddenly the Great Wall of China jumped out at me," Drysdale said.
He has taken heart from what he achieved despite his illness, and has his fingers crossed that he'll be over the bug by Saturday's final.
"If I can race like that the way I was feeling, the final should be a breeze," he said.
Fate was less kind to the men's coxless four. World champions last year, they were dumped out of the Olympics when they finished fourth in their semifinal.
Young single sculler Emma Twigg missed a final place by 0.05s when she crossed fourth in the closest finish of the day.
New Zealand will field five crews on Saturday. Defending Olympic double scull champions Caroline and Georgina Evers-Swindell and the coxless pair of Juliette Haigh and Nicky Coles have already secured their places in the finals.
Lightweight double scullers Storm Uru and Peter Taylor race their semifinal today. Their final is to be raced on Sunday.
