KEY POINTS:
Reigning rowing world champion Mahe Drysdale is confident he will have made up a two-month lag in his Olympic rowing preparations by the end of his upcoming European campaign.
Drysdale had his build-up disrupted when he was pitched into a showdown in March with former Olympic champion Rob Waddell for the single sculls berth for Beijing.
The three-time world titleholder would not normally have had to hit a peak so early in the year.
But Waddell's return to the sport after two America's Cup yachting campaigns with Team New Zealand meant he had to answer the challenge on the water.
In the end, Drysdale prevailed 2-1 after Waddell's heart problem surfaced in the deciding race.
However, the change to his usual schedule had put him "a couple of months behind".
He was still working on improving his base fitness, three weeks before flying out with the bulk of the New Zealand Olympic rowing team for regattas in Europe.
"I'm in a difference place from where I might be at this time of the year, but all the training measures that we have are pretty positive," he said.
"I'm still struggling at the high end, the racing and that sort of thing that we do in practice.
"But that's something that will come with a bit more time. Once we move back into that really intense phase going into the Olympics, it should all come right."
Drysdale's European programme will take him to Switzerland, the Netherlands and Poland.
He begins with a World Cup event in Lucerne from May 30 to June 1 and he was expecting it to be tough going.
"It will be a bit of shock to the system," he said.
"It's trying to tell the body you're going from base work to the intense stuff in a week. But that's all part of the long-term goal and the first regatta is not the end of the world."
Drysdale then heads to Amsterdam for the Holland Bekker regatta the following weekend, before competing in the season's final World Cup event in Poznan from June 20 to 22.
After Europe, Drysdale will continue his training in either New Zealand or Australia, before going to Beijing about 10 days before the Games begin on August 8.
He said the plan was that, by Poznan, he would have caught up and be at the same stage in his preparations as he was at the same point of his successful world championship campaigns.
"Then that last period will be exactly the same as we have done in previous years," he said.
"I'm confident we can do that."
While Drysdale will head to Beijing as one of New Zealand's best chances of claiming gold, it wasn't something he was thinking about too much at the moment.
More important was concentrating on the present and making sure he was doing everything right to put himself in contention.
"Every day I'm out there, I'm trying to fix things and make things better because, by the time you get to the Olympics, there's very little you can do to affect the result," he said.
"That's why it's important now to prepare ourselves the best we can, because this is the time when you can win or lose the competition."
- NZPA
