KEY POINTS:
World champion Mahe Drysdale was to have a solitary scull today from Putney to Mortlake to become the Champion of the Thames and winner of the 167th race for the Wingfield Sculls trophy.
The New Zealander was due to race against Mark Hunter and Ian Lawson, the three-times Thames champion and Britain's single sculler in the Athens Olympics in 2004, but the Britons have withdrawn out of protest over Drysdale's entry.
"The Wingfields is the true British event for scullers on the Tideway," Hunter told the Times newspaper.
"I don't agree with encouraging overseas people to come and do it. It will open the doors for more."
"The event is for scullers from the UK and Northern Ireland," Wade Hall-Craggs, the Wingfield Committee chairman, said, "but defined not so much by their passport, but where they actually train and scull."
Drysdale, who grew up in Britain and whose grandfather is British, has trained from the Tideway Scullers Club every winter since the Athens Olympics.
"He does more training on the Tideway than any of the GB national squad," Hall-Craggs said.
- NZPA
