Rowing: Mahe Drysdale chasing seat in quad for world champs

Double Olympic champion Mahe Drysdale will be a contender for the New Zealand quad at this year's world championships in Bulgaria.

Drysdale is determined to win back his single sculling seat for the Tokyo Olympics in 2020. He won't be in that role at the worlds, having lost out to the incumbent Robbie Manson, who was clearly superior in their meetings this season, both at home and in Europe.

However the 39-year-old, who took last year off after winning his second consecutive Olympic title in Rio in 2016, wants to be at the worlds in Plovdiv in September, and is keen to challenge for a place in the quad.

The upshot is six athletes will be vying for four seats in the quad, as part of a training camp from August 3-10 specifically for athletes in boats who are yet to be confirmed for the worlds.

At the third World Cup regatta in Lucerne this month, the quad of Nathan Flannery, Jordan Parry, Cameron Crampton and Lewis Hollows won the B final in 5min 47.340, a time which would have had them fourth in the A final.

A poor repechage cost them a place in the A final. Those four, plus Giacomo Thomas and Drysdale are battling for seats to the worlds.

''Mahe's a smart guy and if he can add to the boat, then that's what we're trying to do,'' Rowing New Zealand's high performance boss Alan Cotter said of Drysdale. ''The boat wasn't going too badly (in Europe).''

Drysdale, who has won bronze, gold, gold at the past three Olympics, last represented New Zealand at a major event in anything other than the single seat at the Athens Olympics in 2004 when he was in the four with Donald Leach, Carl Meyer and Eric Murray who finished fifth in the A final.

But it won't be a question of be whether Drysdale can turn his considerable prowess in a single into a larger boat.

He's done plenty of crew boat competition at domestic level so it's not as if he'd be trying to venture into completely uncharted territory.

The camp at Lake Karapiro will include six women and 18 men, vying for places in the men's eight, lightweight single and quad, and women's four and single.

In addition, rowers who perform strongly at this weekend's world under 23 championships in Poland can be added to the camp. The men's quad are defending world champions.

They are through to the semifinals late tonight after finishing second in their heat behind Germany.