KEY POINTS:
Double world champion single sculler Mahe Drysdale has some daunting news for his rivals: he's two seconds quicker on the erg machine than he was a year ago.
To put that in some sort of perspective, over the previous two years he had reduced his time by just
1.2s.
But that's not all. Most staggering is Drysdale's belief that he can go another five seconds quicker on the water.
"I'm improving still. World records, well you need the conditions to be perfect, but I feel like I'm faster. I've taken two seconds off my erg these trials which is a pretty significant improvement. Physiologically I'm getting better and better. So, in the right conditions, I can definitely take my world record down.
"In all honesty, I think I've got five seconds of improvement left in me by the time I get to Beijing. That's my estimation on what I can do in the next 18 months."
Where that differs from previous years is that Drysdale knows he needs to. He nearly got a rude kick up his bow buoy last year by thinking that the rest of the world was standing still while he was making these incredible gains.
That came home to him with three-quarters of the world championship final at Eton completed.
"With about 500m to go I realised that I'd got myself into a lot of trouble. Usually at that point of the race I'm near the front," Drysdale said.
Instead, when he looked across the lake, he couldn't pick up the stern of Marcel Hacker's boat. The German was significantly further down the man-made lake, powering towards an upset victory. The normally calculating Drysdale pushed the panic button. "That's when I decided I just needed to put in as many strokes as possible and see what happens."
A second world championship was what happened, in a world record time of 6m 35.4s, but it served as a timely reminder to Drysdale that he would have to do more than just turn up to China to collect gold next year.
"That was a shock for me but a good lesson to learn. I know they're not just sitting there doing the same thing. They're trying to find ways to beat me so I can't let them get a sniff."
It's why this European campaign, which takes in world cup regattas in Lucerne and Amsterdam and the world champs in Munich, is so vital.
"We're aiming for Beijing and at the end of worlds that's just a year out. That's not a huge amount of time. It's so important that this year we get everything done. The base, if you like. We've got to get a mental edge in Europe," he said.
A loss to Hacker would have been hard to stomach but Drysdale, the hunted, has seen what losing has done to recently converted hunters in the New Zealand squad. The women's pair, double, and the men's pair all got a large dose of reality at Eton and Drysdale says the results have been there for all to see at Karapiro.
"Losing gives you a lot of motivation. You see the men's pair, the women's pair and even the twins; just watch how hungry they are. I'm in a fortunate situation where we're all training together, chasing each other, racing each other so their hunger rubs off on me. And I've had Nathan Cohen chasing me all summer.
"I've changed coaches this year [from Dick Tonks to Kelvin Ferguson] and am going against the lightweights in training and that's the major part of my training, the competition. That's the advantage I have over a lot of the other scullers who don't get that internal pressure.
"Although you sometimes think 'I wish these guys would go away', it's what makes you go quicker."
Five seconds quicker, he hopes.
