Rowing: Drysdale says arthritis won't stop him

Mahe Drysdale. Photo / Christine Cornege

Champion single sculler Mahe Drysdale has arthritis but says his goal of competing at London next year in search of an elusive Olympics gold medal to go with his four world titles remains intact.

Drysdale, 32, said he has had to make changes to his training programme after the condition developed.

He had recovered from a disc problem which troubled him last year but started experiencing further problems in December with pain building up in his back when he did a full week of rowing.

He is now looking at spending less time on the water and more on cross training - a recipe he is confident will take him to the next Olympics where he aims to turn his 2008 Beijing bronze into gold.

"I had struggled with my disc problem since last March and this problem started around Christmas," Drysdale told NZPA today.

"It is related to the previous injury and something quite common and a lot of people have to deal with it."

Drysdale said it was not the end of the world even though he could not do quite as much training on the water as he would like.

He could make it up through more cross training in a similar regime rowers in other countries would employ in winter.

"It is obviously something you get as an older athlete but something that I don't think will affect me going forward.

"It is going to mean that I change things around a wee bit to make sure I manage it properly in next few months going forward to the (London) Olympics.

"Hopefully, as things progress, I will have less and less pain in time," added Drysdale who has done no racing this year, but is looking at next week's national championships on Lake Ruataniwha at Twizel as a first test on his back.

"Not racing this year has been a precautionary measure - I am feeling a lot a lot better and managing to cope with all the training and preparation the national champs next week.

"I am not quite as fit as I would like to be at the moment because the condition when it appeared was debilitating and I missed training for couple of weeks."

Drysdale did not anticipate any effect on his international programme this year - World Cup rounds in the northern hemisphere summer and the world championships in Bled, Slovenia starting in late August.

Last year had been frustrating sitting on the bank nursing his back while others trained but Drysdale judged he had done well to have won a world championships silver medal with just three months of training.

"If I can get a full year of training in I am confident I can get back that gold," said Drysdale who won the last of his four world titles in 2009.

However, he was not losing sight of his main objective.

"This year is important for training to put in the real fitness base ahead of the London Olympics."

- NZPA