Rowing: Drysdale beats the odds

Laid up up in bed and unable to move is hardly an ideal position for an athlete five months out from a world championships.

Men of lesser spirit than new world champion Mahe Drysdale would have put plans of global glory to rest and started thinking about other things.

But single-scull champion Drysdale was not about to let a small matter of badly damaged vertebrae - courtesy of a runaway jet-skier - ruin his hopes of becoming the world's best.

Drysdale says he might not have taken centre-stage on the winner's podium in Japan had it not been for that nightmare moment on Lake Karapiro.

"It may have actually been a blessing in disguise because it gave me a couple of months off and the chance to go away and refocus on my goals," he says.

As might be expected, doubts about a full recovery and ability to get back out on to the water did creep into his psyche.

"I did have those thoughts of, 'well, that's my year over', and was concerned how it would affect me in the long run.

"So to come through and still do as well as I did in the World Cup gave me the confidence and belief that I could go on and perform at the world champs."

That Drysdale was able to even take his place in the field, let alone emerge victorious, is a testament to determination befitting a world champion.

"At the time I couldn't move at all. I had some feelings in my legs and arms so the doctors were confident I wouldn't be paralysed but I was in pretty bad shape," he says.

"I had to be airlifted out to hospital and it was two or three days before I could even move.

"I had to be helped out of bed and that sort of thing so it was a pretty scary time for me."

His condition, only months before the event, was just one of a number of odds stacked against Drysdale in Japan.

His win was made all the more remarkable by the fact that he has only been a single-sculler for about half a year.

"This is my first year as a single-sculler and I can't think of anyone else who has become a world champion so quickly," he says.

Drysdale was only the fifth fastest to qualify but felt he was among a batch of three capable of going all the way.

"I know not a lot of people were expecting me to win, but the race went exactly to plan and by the final third I knew I'd done it."

- HERALD ON SUNDAY