Rowing: Drysdale eyes 2010 glory

Just in case anyone had forgotten, Mahe Drysdale got in a plug for next year's world championships as he celebrated his fourth single sculls title in Poland yesterday.

The countdown to Lake Karapiro's second world championships, after 1978, will start today after another strong campaign by New Zealand's premier rowers, Drysdale's gold following the victory by coxless pair Hamish Bond and Eric Murray earlier in the day on Lake Malta in Poznan.

And backed by a third placing, and two fourths in Saturday's finals showed New Zealand is making tidy progress at the start of the new Olympic cycle heading towards London in 2012.

Drysdale's mantelpiece is filling up after the tall, lean Aucklander fought off Britain's determined Alan Campbell down the stretch on a day of tricky wind conditions.

In the final 500m Campbell gave it everything and Drysdale had to work overtime to clinch the crown. The reward for the pair was both going under the old world fastest time, which Drysdale also held.

He recorded 6min 33.35s, Campbell, who made his customary roaring start and led at halfway, 6:34.30, and Drysdale got a mention in for New Zealand rowing's HQ.

"I look forward to next year and the home crowd which hopefully will bring me down the last 500m," Drysdale said.

"This has been a dream year for me. It's been one of the best ever, and this is a great way to finish it."

Not to mention helping banish the memory of the Beijing Olympic final last year, in which a debilitating illness severely weakened Drysdale and left him with a bronze medal.

While Drysdale's name is synonymous with world gold glory, Bond and Murray showed they will be formidable in the leadup to 2012 in their new discipline.

They were world champions in the coxless four two years ago but things went badly awry in Beijing last year when they missed out on the final.

The pair have been dominant throughout the European season and won their final in 6:15.93, 1s off the world best time, holding off their strongest rivals, Britain's Peter Reed and Andrew Triggs-Hodge with almost 2s up their sleeves.

"The British kept coming back and we were just pushing to make it to the finish line. But you don't really feel the pain as there's so much adrenalin," Murray said.

The third medal on Saturday went to another first-year combination, Emma Feathery and Rebecca Scown, in the coxless pair.

They had won the two World Cup regattas at Munich and Lucerne but were unable to complete the perfect campaign, pipped in a desperately tight finish.

A tardy start probably cost them as they crossed in 7:06.94s, a mere .66s behind winners Zsuzsanna Francia and Erin Cafaro of the United States, with Romanians Camelia Lupascu and Nicoleta Albu second. The entire field was covered by 4s.

"This is bitter sweet and not what we wanted," Feathery said. "But it's our first year in this combination and there is still a lot we can work on."

Single sculler Emma Twigg and double scullers Matthew Trott and Nathan Cohen were fourth in their finals, Twigg just .51s off the bronze; the men 1.1s out of third spot.

Adaptive single sculler Robin Tinga was fifth in his final, recording 5:16.67 over the 1000m course.

Anna Reymer and Paula Twining won the double scull B final, earning them a ranking of No 7 in the world for the year.