Rowing: Men's eight not ruled out

Rowing New Zealand may yet field a men's eight at the world championships at Lake Karapiro starting in October.

This weekend, New Zealand has two men's coxless fours in action at the second World Cup event of the season in Munich, Germany. After the next two regattas, the best four oarsmen will be chosen when they trial again in August. A similar concept was used in 2002.

However, the current two crews will combine into an eight at the Henley Royal Regatta next month. If they perform creditably there could be an eight at Lake Karapiro.

In that case, four more athletes will need to impress the selectors at the trials.

Simon Watson is likely to be considered. He is recovering from a hip problem but won an under-23 world championship gold medal in the coxless four last season.

The performance of this year's under-23 team will be scrutinised at their world championships in Belarus next month. Dane Boswell and Warrick Wright are being monitored too, from their base in Blenheim.

High performance manager Alan Cotter says the selectors still have a decision to make: "It will be decided at the next trials whether it is worth having an eight, depending on those results overseas. The contenders will then be monitored against other crews to see if they can notch up a decent time."

Despite success in the men's eight during the 1970s and early 1980s - Olympic gold and bronze medals and two world championships - there is a reluctance to invest too many resources due to the current small boat dominance. Ambitions were stifled by the men's (2007) and women's (2006-08) eights crews failing to compete. Yet there is a temptation to enter the blue-riband event on home water.

Dave Thompson coaches both coxless four crews. Speaking from Munich he remained coy, saying he'll leave the call to the selectors.

Sean O'Neill raced for the Irish coxless four at the 2008 Olympics but has been given dispensation this year to accommodate his dual nationality status. He says the scenario makes for a competitive training environment.

"It is pushing the eight of us to the limit but it seems to be working. Our times have been good. We just have to bring it to the race environment."

That is proven with their relative results . O'Neill's crew are commonly around 1 per cent below the performance of New Zealand's incumbent world champions - single sculler Mahe Drysdale and the men's pair of Eric Murray and Hamish Bond. At the start of the season O'Neill says that figure was as high as 3 per cent.

Meanwhile, former men's coxless four world champion Carl Meyer is making a return to top level rowing at Henley. The man known by former teammates as 'Bootcamp', because of his self-discipline, has been given direct entry into the single sculls.

The New Zealand team is also competing at Henley. Meyer is not listed as part of their entries but is hoping to get permission to train with his former team-mates on Dorney Lake.

Meyer leaves on Friday and is training out of the Melbourne University Boat Club. It is all part of the OE with new wife Caroline (formerly Evers-Swindell). He is working as an engineer and she is a florist after both stepped away from rowing at the elite level.

"I got Mahe [singles sculler and former crewmate Drysdale] to send me some training splits. I know I've only really been rowing recreationally but I was still disappointed when I received them. They're a lot faster than what I'm doing.

"To put it into perspective, I'm scared about meeting either [lightweight sculler] Duncan Grant or Mahe in the opening knockout round."

He has also been struggling to adjust to sculling (two oars) from sweep oar rowing (one oar). The change has caused some rib pain.

" It's frustrating because I'd like to be going faster but I've only been able to get in the boat every couple of days."

However Meyer does have the advantage of a double Olympic sculling champion as a spouse to consult for advice. They intend to be home for the world champs.

A 26-strong squad is in action this weekend after an advance party of seven athletes competed at Bled, Slovenia three weeks ago. Injuries to Drysdale (back), Anna Reymer (back) and Harriet Austin (rib) means they missed the regatta.

Men's Coxless Four A - David Eade, Jade Uru, Hamish Burson, Sean O'Neill.

Men's Coxless Four B - Ben Hammond, Chris Harris, Ian Seymour, Tyson Williams.