KEY POINTS:
Rob Hellstrom called it "a pretty cool feeling".
He could have been talking about completing a remarkable comeback to New Zealand's elite rowing squad for this year's world championship campaign. Unwanted for the past three years, the Blenheim oarsman - who helped to qualify the coxless pair for
the 2004 Athens Olympics only to be overlooked for the big trip - is back as part of one of the biggest New Zealand squads to head for Europe.
In fact, the 29-year-old was talking about the return of the eight. Hellstrom is the sole survivor from the last New Zealand eight to contest the world champs, at Cologne in 1998.
Both men's and women's eights are heading for World Cup regattas and the world champs, fittingly in Munich as Rowing New Zealand seeks to re-establish the country in the blue riband event.
Think eights and minds drift back to the Olympics of 1972 in the same German city when New Zealand won perhaps its most famous gold medal and, for the first time, God Defend New Zealand was played as the country's anthem. Hard men shed tears that day as the flag was raised and there was undisguised delight yesterday at being back in the long boat.
"Munich is probably the spiritual home for New Zealand rowing," Hellstrom said. "I don't think it would have happened if the guys in the elite team over the last few years hadn't posted the results they have. They've lifted the bar."
Hellstrom found it tough to take when he was omitted for Athens in favour of younger hot-shot George Bridgewater, who has gone on to become world champion with Nathan Twaddle in the pair.
He spent time coaching Marlborough Boys High rowers. "I got a lot of enjoyment out of that and could see they enjoyed rowing for the same reason I did, and I rebuilt from there."
He's made some technical and physical changes after failing to make it back at last year's national trials.
"After last year I thought maybe this is the time, enough's enough," he said. His club coach, Mark Stallard, who is coaching this year's eight, stirred him up and "once I got involved it was hard to give up, so I thought I'd give it a real big push."
He has his reward and is the senior citizen in an eight with time on its side. Hellstrom got the quiet word on Wednesday that he was in and after weeks of "lying awake at night for three hours sweating on the possible outcomes, I slept well last night".
And RNZ officials confirmed the eight campaign is no flight of fancy.
"We've put a stake in the ground. It's not a one-off," RNZ chief executive Craig Ross said yesterday. The implication is obvious: Lake Karapiro hosts the 2010 world champs and the selectors want eights in black singlets on the water.
Four lightweight scullers have been chosen. The worlds are the only regatta this year at which boats can be qualified for the Beijing Olympics next year.
Graham Oberlin-Brown and Peter Taylor get first crack in the double scull. But only one of world under-23 champion Storm Uru and world champs bronze medallist Duncan Grant can contest the single seat at Munich. There is no lightweight single in Beijing, so four oarsmen are vying for two Olympic spots.
Winning the national title gave Nathan Cohen and Matthew Trott first dibs on the double scull spots.
Standards vary among the events in Munich. For example there are 11 spots available in the men's single scull, in which Mahe Drysdale is the double world champion, but only five in the women's eight.
Funding needed for back-to-back success
That's the easy part, now for the money.
Rowing New Zealand's announcement of hefty squads to contest the world elite and under-23 championships this year points to the depth in the sport. But the European campaign is expected to cost RNZ about $1.9 million.
"The cost of preparation and sending the teams has almost doubled in the past two years," RNZ chief executive Craig Ross said yesterday.
"We shouldn't be frightened of that figure; we should be embracing it for the development and growth the sport is experiencing."
A chat with sports funding agency Sparc is looming and there is a flipside to the expensive seven months ahead.
Olympic year is not, relatively speaking, a financial burden for the sport as the New Zealand Olympic committee picks up the bulk of the tab for Beijing "so 2008 is not necessarily a tough costing year".
Rowing can mount a powerful argument for solid backing.
For starters, Mahe Drysdale is back-to-back world single sculls champion and Caroline and Georgina Evers-Swindell are defending Olympic champions. Add in four gold medals won at the 2005 world champs, a five-medal haul at the Eton worlds last year and a host of strong world under-23 performances and there is ample evidence the sport's heart is beating strongly as Beijing approaches.
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SQUADS:
New Zealand world champs squad for Munich in August:
MEN:
Single scull: Mahe Drysdale (West End, Auckland)
Coxless pair: George Bridgewater (Canaviron, Christchurch), Nathan Twaddle (Auckland)
Double scull: Nathan Cohen (Invercargill), Matthew Trott (Canaviron)
Coxless four: Hamish Bond (North End), Eric Murray (Waikato), James Dallinger (Waikato), Carl Meyer (Canaviron)
Eight: Carl Finlay (Waikato), Ben Scott (Waikato), Dane Boswell (Waikato), Robert Hellstrom (Wairau, Blenheim), Selwyn Cleland (Waikato), Paul Gerritsen (Waikato), Steven Cottle (Auckland), Graeme Hill (Waikato), Daniel Quigley (coxswain, Auckland)
Lightweight double scull: Peter Taylor (Auckland), Graham Oberlin-Brown (Te Awamutu)
Lightweight single scull: Duncan Grant (Wairau), Storm Uru (Waihopai, Invercargill)
WOMEN:
Double scull: Caroline Evers-Swindell, Georgina Evers-Swindell (both Hamilton)
Coxless pair: Nicky Coles, Juliette Haigh (both West End)
Eight: Erin Tolhurst (West End), Fiona Paterson (Hamilton), Paula Twining (Waikato), Nicki-Lee Crawford (Union, Wanganui), Rebecca Scown (Union), Emma Feathery (Waikato), Simone Hudson (Wairau), Tamsin Gilbert (Tauranga), Candice Bardsley (coxswain, Waikato)
UNDER 23 SQUAD
For world champs, Strathclyde, Scotland, July 26-29:
MEN:
Single scull: Joseph Sullivan (Picton)
Coxless four: David Eade (Waikato), Jared Pehi (Waikato), Ben Hammond (Wanganui), Chris Harris (Wanganui)
WOMEN:
Single scull: Emma Twigg (Hawkes Bay)
Quad scull: Anna Stantiall (Wanganui), Genevieve Armstrong (Tauranga), Harriet Austin (Union), Rosslyn Knox (Wairau)
Double scull: Anna Reymer (Cambridge), Emma McGeorge (Wairau)
Lightweight double scull: Sarah Alexander, Gabrielle Rogers (both Hawkes Bay)