Drysdale and Martin find new challenge at the Billy Webb

The two scullers met again on the waters of the Whanganui River in Whanganui, New Zealand to race each other in the 2016 Billy Webb Challenge. In contrast to the 2000m Olympic final, this challenge was a 5km head race and included a mass start, a head wind up to a half way buoy turn and a couple of bridges to negotiate.

The race turned out to be a race of the locals versus late entrant, Tim Ole Naske of Germany. New Zealand national team member John Storey was the quickest at the start with another New Zealand sculler, Jordan Parry in the chase.

Naske, the current under-23 World Champion in the single, then took the lead with Martin making headway in the second half of the race. As Naske continued to lead, Storey began to fade and Martin was able to push into third. Naske won with Parry in second. The lower-rating Drysdale came through in fifth.

In the women’s race Lucy Spoors came in first. Spoors, 25, has been on the New Zealand national team since the junior level in 2007. She was part of the women’s quadruple sculls that tried to qualify for the Rio Olympics. Finishing second behind Spoors was fellow teammate from the quad, Brooke Donoghue.

Spoors and Naske both received $NZD1000 for their win.

Naske was funded to come to New Zealand by a club member from his rowing club in Hamburg who believed it would be great for him to compete against the best in the world. “I thought, ‘oh that’s quite a huge trip but, yeah, why not?’” said Naske, who found out just three weeks ago about the event.  “I’ve done something similar to this, the Silver Skiff (in Italy), so I knew what it would be like.”

Towards the finish Naske could see Martin gaining on him. “I was like, ‘no, I want to be on the podium,’” said Naske. “That finish was so hard, so f-ing hard.”

Martin came to the race on invitation from Drysdale and the two have been training together both on and off the water. “It’s great being here as normally this time of year I’m training indoors or doing something like long distance cycling,” said Martin.

It is unlikely that Drysdale and Martin will race against each other any time soon. So, for now, Martin can hold bragging rights to having beaten Drysdale.

“I’m on a break now,” said Drysdale who is taking a year off from rowing and expecting his second child in January. “But I am trying to stay a bit fit by rowing, running and cycling. I’ll look at doing a marathon next year.”

“I’m working towards next season,” said Martin. “I plan to do the World Championships, European Championships, the World Cups and also to have a wedding later in the year.”

The Billy Webb Challenge is an annual event and commemorates single sculling World Champion Billy Webb’s historic defence of his title on the Whanganui River in 1908.