‘I am ready for semi-final’ says confident rower Alan Campbell
Thursday, 14 August 2008
COLERAINE rower Alan Campbell will go up against friend and rival, three-time world champion, Mahe Drysdale, tomorrow (Wednesday) as he seeks to book his place in Saturday's Olympic final.
Only the top three finishers will qualify for the weekend final with Campbell hopeful of progressing following steady progress in his heats over the past week.
On Saturday, the single sculler won his opening race in a time of 7.14.98 and he followed that up with an assured performance to finish second behind Germany's Marcel Hacker in Monday's quarter-final.
Encouragingly, he has felt no ill effects from a serious knee injury which at one point threatened to keep him out of the Beijing Games.
"It went exactly to plan. I was really pleased," admitted Campbell after the quarter-final. "It was another step forward for the knee. Of course I would have liked to have won but I would have got it in the neck if I had pushed any harder.
“I started better than in the heat and then I was just trying to stay long and strong through the middle.
“I am ready for the semi-final on Wednesday. I need to be in the first three and then anything can happen in the final," he added.
The second of Coleraine's trio of Olympic oarsmen will also be in action in his semi-final a day later on Thursday. Richard Chambers and the GB Men's Lightweight Four finished second behind host nation China in their opening heat at the weekend and have high hopes of making next Sunday's final.
“It was a good confidence boost for us," said Richard. "After a poor World Cup series to go out and do that was great. It was seriously good fun out there.
“I know we did not beat the Chinese but we were pulling back on them. We know they gave it their all as did we but we know we have bits that we can improve.
“Towards the end I was shouting 'we're catching them' and James [Lindsay-Fynn] was shouting 'let's have them, let's have them now' - we may have left it too late but we can do it.
“We are definitely up there with the best of them," he added.
