Alan Campbell and Mahe Drysdale overlap blades in Billy Webb Challenge battle | Manawatu-Wanganui Sport | Surfing, Rugby, Soccer, Football, Cricket in Manawatu-Wanganui

When good friends Alan Campbell and Mahe Drysdale were overlapping blades early in Saturday's Billy Webb Challenge on the Whanganui River, the pair had contrasting thoughts.

The amiable Campbell, who was trying to hold off Drysdale's Aramoho rail bridge surge, only to lose that battle and the race, remembers: "I wanted to reach across and thump him really.

"But he was like the steamboat [Waimarie] which came down earlier, he wasn't going to stop. He just kept steaming away.

"I think he's got this amazingly big engine. His size does help him, he's got an amazingly strong heart and very strong legs."

Drysdale?

"There were no words, but it's a battle out there. There was quite a bit of overlapping with the blades but we're both pretty experienced scullers - you just have to time it right so you don't hit each other."

Why the closeness?

"You both want the same water - neither of us wanted to give it to the other."

That's where the battle was. Campbell gained the favoured left side draw, and was quickly away - although trailing Wairau's Robbie Manson, who went out very quickly.

Drysdale's plan was to pressure Campbell near the end of the 2000m mark at Aramoho and try to get an advantage just past that point.

"It went pretty much as planned," said Drysdale.

"It probably took a little longer to get by Alan, but I knew he would be quick [away]. I was just trying to keep on his stern and then attack him when we got to the end of the 2km.

"Once I started to get the ascendancy it became a lot easier."

Drysdale rated the event as tough as any Billy Webbs so far, with the incoming tide a factor in making it longer - the chop becoming worse on the second half of the course as the wind took hold.

"Obviously I've come into this race a whole lot better prepared - usually I've just had a big break.

"But it was still a tough operation."

At the end Drysdale had around four lengths on Campbell, even though the Great Britain rower mounted a big sprint - "a little crowd-pleaser".

Third was three-times former world lightweight singles champion Duncan Grant, who stayed in touch for much of the race, while Manson faded to fourth and American lightweight Jonathon Winter arrived some time later.

The women's race for the Phillippa Baker-Hogan Trophy was dominated by Kiwi Emma Feathery from the start, with World Cup lightweight silver medallist Louis Ayling dropping right back before starting to push through late for a distant third.

The action came from American Ursula Grobler, who's only been rowing for four years. She pressured Feathery through the middle once Feathery had taken over from the early pacemaker Harriet Austin (Wanganui).

But the rough water effectively ended her chances.

"I just need to learn how to row in the rough water. As soon as we hit the chop I was losing my stroke," she said.

Feathery has little experience at 5km racing.

"I haven't been in one for a long time. We do them as a [national] squad, but nothing as wonderful as a river race like this."

On the Grobler threat ...

"Yes, it became a personal battle out there. There's nothing worse than a speedy lightweight to scare heavyweights. "She did a spectacular job."

Racing was watched by large crowds, the corporate eights A final going to MWH No1, from Prospace, Display associates and Chronicle/Radio Network. The B final went to Corrections.