Rowing: Disappointment left downstream

The men's four (from left, Tobias Wehr-Candler, Hamish Burson, Carl Meyer and James Dalling. Photo / Christine Cornege

Carl Meyer admits returning to the elite New Zealand rowing environment late last year was a bit of a shock at first.

Not surprising, really, considering he had taken almost two years out of the top flight after the Beijing Olympic Games.

Meyer was part of the world champion coxless four of 2007, who then missed out on a place in the Beijing final a year later.

It was a shattering experience and Meyer took a break. Truth be told, he wasn't sure he'd ever return. He spent about 10 months in Melbourne working as a structural engineer, before deciding the competitive rowing bug still had a hold.

"I wasn't sure I'd come back and I didn't decide until I was in Melbourne doing club rowing," he said yesterday. "It was a nice break from sitting in the office all day and I got to thinking that the competitive spark was still there."

Meyer returned for summer squad training and that helped get him up to speed.

"That was good for me and got me ready for this winter. I feel I can foot it with the guys again. I don't feel I'm playing catch-up any more."

Life is different now compared with 2008. He and wife Caroline - formerly Evers-Swindell - have 2- month-old son Tom for starters.

Taking time out also drummed home to Meyer the allround quality of the Rowing New Zealand set-up at Lake Karapiro. "The break away was brilliant and made me appreciate how lucky we are as sports people, especially in this environment at Rowing New Zealand.

"When you're in here," he said, looking about the high-performance room loaded with the country's elite and top under-23 rowers on the lines of rowing machines and bikes, "it's easy to lose sight of that".

Meyer is reuniting with his 2006-07 four crewmate James Dallinger and Tobias Wehr-Candler and Ian Seymour out of last year's eight with their attention firmly fixed on the world championships in Bled, Slovenia, in August-September.

That is the Olympic qualifying regatta and in their class the first 11 crews will have secured spots at London. The identity of the bodies in the boat is another story.

This is a sport where nothing is guaranteed.

Meyer, 29, admitted the early training had been difficult with a range of injuries meaning it was rare to have all four in the boat at the same time. With that in mind, expectations may not be high for the opening regatta in Hamburg next month. But it's the Olympic qualifying which matters; that and putting in quality performances to encourage the selectors to keep the quartet together.

"The preparation has not been very good so far, we're not quite tracking how we'd want."

And because of that it had been difficult to get an accurate gauge of how the four are gelling on the water.

"We've just got to qualify [for London]. That's the bottom line."

Nine crews head for Europe including the world champion headline acts Eric Murray and Hamish Bond, the two coxless pair world champions Juliette Haigh and Rebecca Scown and Joseph Sullivan and Nathan Cohen.

The Olympic regatta consists of 14 events and New Zealand will fancy their chances of qualifying for all except the women's eight.

Planning for Europe

* The first New Zealand squad leaves for Europe on June 10 to contest the second World Cup in Hamburg from June 17-19, the third at Lucerne from July 8-10 and the world championships in Bled, Slovenia, from August 28-September 4.

* That group of nine crews includes the three world champions from last November on Lake Karapiro, coxless pairs Rebecca Scown and Juliette Haigh and Eric Murray and Hamish Bond, and double scullers Joseph Sullivan and Nathan Cohen.

* The second group of five crews will contest just Lucerne and the worlds.

* Olympic qualifying for London next year takes place at the world championships.