Former Tauranga rower Mahe Drysdale has finally realised his Olympic dream as he claimed gold in the single sculls at Eton Dorney last night.
In his third Games Drysdale had the slightest advantage over Czech Republic competitor Ondrej Synek at the 1000m mark and the five-time world champion made his move in the third quarter of the race and edged ahead of the pack with 500m to go.
Synek called on Drysdale as he surged in the final part of the race but Drysdale dug deep to hold and won in a time of 6:57.82.
"That was the toughest race of my life.
"That last 250 I had nothing but the support of the crowd," Drysdale told Prime last night.
Drysdale said he been suffering a bad case of nerves in the morning to the point of throwing up, which had brought back memories of Beijing.
He said he did not know what the future held but felt he had fulfilled a major goal now that he could place a gold medal in his trophy cabinet.
Earlier, dominant Kiwi pair Hamish Bond and Eric Murray won gold as they blitzed their final to win by nearly five seconds in a time of 6:16.65 as France were second and Great Britain claimed third.
The women's double sculls crew of Fiona Paterson and Anna Reymer faded to finish fifth in their final, while the men's quadruple sculls crew won the B final.
Drysdale's rowing world collapsed in Beijing four years ago. He collapsed, too, having to be hauled out of his boat after finishing third in the Olympic Games single sculls final.
Drysdale, world champion for the three previous years, became ill after wearing the heavy ceremonial cloak on a steamy night at the opening ceremony in Beijing.
He rowed a gallant final but finished in awful physical shape. He laughed about it this week, but London offered redemption, although you wouldn't hear it from Drysdale's lips. That's not his mindset. He simply wanted to achieve the goal he'd striven for over the last eight years.
"That [Beijing] is not really a motivation. I do it for other reasons and want to be the best I can be," he said after winning his semifinal.
"It's not necessarily redemption. You learn from what happens to you. Beijing taught me a lot of lessons and you only get a couple of opportunities at this in your life so you've got to make the most of them."
Picking himself back up again was tough, he said.
"Initially I had to make a decision on what I was going to do. Did I have it in me to keep going for another four years? I was either going to be in London or retire. I wasn't going to go for a year or two. A couple of months later I started to get the desire again."
He has had hiccups on the journey to last night's race, with back problems forcing a change in his training routine after Beijing. Around half of it is spent cycling instead of total on-water work, but even that is perilous - he was knocked off his bike by a car just before the Munich world cup regatta in June, and skipped that event.
Despite his imposing 2m frame, Drysdale's success at Tauranga Boys' College was in the unknown sport of canoe polo.
He only started rowing when he was an 18-year-old student at the University of Auckland, giving up to put more time into his studies but returning to the single scull after watching Rob Waddell win gold at the Sydney Olympics in 2000.
Softly spoken and incredibly humble, Drysdale says there is no way he could have got through the challenging times without the support of his family, especially his partner and fellow Olympic rower Juliette Haigh - and his No 1 fan, his Mount Maunganui-based mum Robin Owens, who was delirious in the stands.
"She's amazing. I know she's lived every second of it along with me."
Owens still gets misty-eyed when she thinks back at her eldest son's heroic bronze in Beijing and the nasty gastrointestinal infection.
That was a stunning effort and despite being the pre-Games favourite, he won more accolades for losing than he would have if he'd taken gold.
"He was so sick he was almost unconscious," Owens told the NZ Herald's Canvas magazine.
"Then he made them drag him to the podium and the other two [medallists] held him up ... It was just my proudest moment.
"For him and for the fact that he was such a good sport about it."
By the time Drysdale handed Owens his bouquet, his eyes had rolled back into his head.
"He was in a really terrible situation, it was just so moving."
She had no idea of the reaction here until she returned to Mount Maunganui and found a mountain of fan mail.
"That was stunning, just, wow ... and it took Mahe a while to realise it but in lots of ways he might have lost but things turned out for the better."
Until last night - that was the best.
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