KEY POINTS:
Former Olympic champion Rob Waddell's rowing comeback ignited today after a two-length victory over world champion Mahe Drysdale in the premier single sculls race at Lake Karapiro's KRI 1 regatta.
Thousands turned out to watch the much-hyped first encounter between two giants of the domestic sport.
In an exciting race, first Eric Murray -- part of the engine room of New Zealand's world champion coxless four -- took the lead, before Nathan Cohen went in front to establish clear water ahead of Waddell and Drysdale.
Past halfway and Waddell and Drysdale began to claw back the deficit to Cohen.
With 500m to go, Waddell unleashed a fearsome sprint and moved through Cohen and away from Drysdale.
In favourable light tailwind conditions, Waddell clocked a time of six minutes 39.8 seconds, just 3sec off Drysdale's world best time over 2000m.
It was an outstanding performance from a man competing for the first time since he won a gold medal in the discipline at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney.
Waddell's return to rowing -- after several years working as a grinder for Team New Zealand's America Cup yachting crew -- has left the New Zealand selectors with a difficult few months ahead of them before they confirm a squad for next year's Beijing Olympics.
Drysdale is the reigning three-time world champion, but the threat posed by Waddell, 32, was underlined today after he'd reportedly shed close to 20kg to get back into rowing shape.
The benefits of a tough training schedule showed themselves today, while Drysdale entered the regatta on the back of a light workload since claiming a third consecutive world title in Germany in August.
The selectors are months away from confirming their crew personnel for Beijing and Waddell and Drysdale will meet again on the water.
Rowing New Zealand high performance manager Andrew Matheson had said today's regatta would create public interest even though it did not rate highly for the Olympic selectors this early in the season.
"Final (Olympic) selection is a long way off," he said.
"The selectors will review all results this weekend but results and times here may have little bearing on the final selections or ultimately the pace our best athletes will achieve later on."
New Zealand has qualified seven boats for the Olympics but the individual rowers have to earn selection.
Results of the men's premier single sculls: Rob Waddell 6min 38.98sec 1, Mahe Drysdale 6:43.05 2, Nathan Cohen 6:45.85 3, Storm Uru 6:54.69 4, Eric Murray 7:00.02 5, Matthew Trott 7:04.47 6.
- NZPA
