KEY POINTS:
New Zealand's only current rowing world champion faces a daunting task to regain his supremacy in the single sculls heading into the final throes of the 2007 campaign.
Mahe Drysdale's dominance is under threat since he finished fourth at the Amsterdam World Cup last month - his first time off the podium at an international event since taking sole charge of the oars in 2005.
That's been compounded by the loss of his Henley Royal Regatta crown to Britain's Alan Campbell last weekend. The 24-year-old Campbell has been Drysdale's training partner for several seasons at the Tideway Scullers School just out of London but had never beaten him in a competitive race. On the face of it, the evidence is stacked against the 28-year-old regaining his world title.
However, in Amsterdam just six seconds separated the top six athletes and, while Drysdale has won successive world championships, he's won only one out of five World Cups. Observers also suggested Campbell had the better side of the Henley course where he wasn't so hindered by the current.
Drysdale's not panicking, even if he admits to feeling far from invincible. "I'm still on the pace through the middle 1000m but my speed work's letting me down in the first and last 500m. That's what my new coach Calvin Ferguson and I have been working on since Amsterdam and I'm feeling better for it."
Ferguson, a former New Zealand lightweight sculls representative from Wanganui, is now one of the country's most successful coaches, despite being fulltime for just four seasons.
He's a sculling specialist, guiding Graham Oberlin-Brown and Peter Taylor as well as Storm Uru to lightweight crowns at last year's under-23 world championships. Ferguson also coaches the Amsterdam World Cup lightweight champion Duncan Grant.
Ferguson has a pedigree to back his coaching credentials.
"Rob Waddell and I used to train as a heavyweight/lightweight combination. Mahe realised this and has seen some of the coaching success I've had. A top lightweight will push a 'heavyweight' at low ratings - it was beneficial for Rob and I'm confident it'll do likewise for Mahe."
There have been some other key changes for Drysdale this season.
"We've increased his level of base work so he's been working a lot harder physically but had done little speedwork up to Amsterdam. We've since increased that and he's already feeling the benefits in Lucerne. We've also made some slight changes to the stroke of his blade through the water," said Ferguson.
Rowing New Zealand head coach Dick Tonks agrees with Ferguson's Lydiard-istic approach to base training but cautions fellow coaches against getting one sole peak out of athletes in a season.
"I look at trying to be ready to race any time - that amounts to several little peaks. Sure, you've still got to push yourself through the miles to get fitter and stronger. It's like Snell eventually being able to endure the Waitakeres or, for a modern-day Kiwi example, Julian Dean on the Tour de France where he used to get spat out the back of the peloton but now he can hack it."
Tonks has been observing the opposition for years, this weekend included, from what's become known to the Kiwis as "Dick's Seat" at Lucerne's Rotsee - a wooden bench under the trees on the 1000m mark.
"Olympic champion Olaf Tufte is the major threat to Mahe's world championship and Olympic chances because he can keep winding up his speed all the way down the course. But if you lined them up over 500m with a standing start, German Marcel Hacker's probably the fastest," said Tonks. "Czech Ondrej Synek is in better form this year and Alan Campbell's progressing as he's shown at Henley."
But Drysdale believes some of his rivals may have peaked too early, particularly Synek, remembering there was a separate ¬3000 ($14,000) prize for the winner in Amsterdam, as part of a parallel-run regatta.
"New Zealanders peak for 'the big one' in the form of the world championships - sometimes other athletes don't make similar improvements over a season," said Drysdale.
And while Ferguson admits his new charge's loss at Henley could be potentially damaging mentally, he says it's outweighed by the gains of becoming race hardened.
"Mahe improved in the first 750m of his races, like when he beat Hacker, and he's already developed more speed. I'm confident he'll be first or second next month in Munich."
Drysdale moved through to the next stage after a good first day for the Kiwis at Lucerne, although there was more disappointment in the big boats.
Lightweight scullers Duncan Grant and Storm Uru went directly to the semifinals with comfortable wins in their heats. Grant was slightly quicker than Uru, but neither was pushed and each led from the start.
Nicky Coles and Juliette Haigh were fastest in the heats of the women's coxless pair and progress to the final. Nathan Twaddle and George Bridgewater got into another scrap with the French and came in second, though they eased off to save gas for the semis. Georgina and Caroline Evers-Swindell cruised into the semi with a comfortable win in the double sculls over Italy and the US.
In the men's double sculls, Nathan Cohen and a fit Matthew Trott took the lead at halfway in their heat - which included the fast British double - before easing off to finish second and move on to the semifinal.
The men's coxless four of Carl Meyer, James Dallinger, Eric Murray and Hamish Bond continued to show their genuine contender's speed with a good win over the Italians.
The women's eights finished at the tail of the field and the men's eight were also off the pace.
