Rowing: Drysdale Russian for the finish

Mahe Drysdale. Photo / Christine Cornege

Residents on the upper floors along Nevsky Prospekt - the main thoroughfare through St Petersburg - might have cause to pause over their breakfast coffee and platefuls of blini pancakes next Sunday.

If they take a close look down at the Fontanka River, which winds its way through the city centre, they will see a couple of lycra-clad Kiwis among a host of top names making a mad rowing dash along a unique 'sprint' course.

New Zealand's top single scullers Mahe Drysdale and Emma Twigg will race the inaugural Golden Blades Sprint regatta, designed to resuscitate Russian rowing by taking it to the people. The sport has suffered since the Cold War ended and the Soviet Union split - they have won just one gold and two bronze medals at the Olympics compared to 42 medals including 12 gold as the USSR.

The event will also include Drysdale's British rival and former training partner Alan Campbell, Slovenian former Olympic double sculls champion Luka Spik and all six women's world championship single sculls finalists at Lake Karapiro. The world champion German eight also features against the United States and the Netherlands. "The Russians are trying to get their premier athletes in front of more people," Drysdale says. "This creates a ready-made audience, much like the University boat race between Oxford and Cambridge along the Thames.

"It's splash and dash - in about 40 seconds, it's over. This is rowing's version of the 100m sprint or 50m freestyle; there is a high rating and no chance for mistakes." Stroke ratings are likely to be in the bracket of 45-50 strokes per second throughout, compared to 40-42 when starting a traditional 2000m race. This event continues Drysdale's history of sculling in exotic locations. In addition to his annual world cup and world championship campaigns, he has won independent regattas in England, the United States, Switzerland, Italy and the Netherlands. The 32-year-old has travelled to Russia before when much of the city, including the canals and rivers, were frozen over in early 2009.

"There should be no problems walking up from the canal to Nevsky Prospekt in my lycra," he jokes.

"But I'm looking forward to getting overseas into the rigours of some top competition again. [The arthritis in] my back's been pretty good of late and I haven't missed a training session for some time.

"This gives me the opportunity to practise my starts, especially against Campbell and Spik, two of the world's fastest sprinters over 250m."

Drysdale joins eight other New Zealand crews in their first World Cup of the year the following weekend in Hamburg.