Three years ago, Robbie Manson ditched the early alarms and gave up rowing.
Having clocked the world's best time in the single sculls, he lost the drive for the sport – but now he's back, reinvigorated and rowing with someone he has a fascinating history with.
“It’s probably a lot more enjoyable than I expected to be honest,” Manson told 1News.
“And I think a lot of it comes down to the group of people that I'm with.”
One of those is new double sculls crewmate Ben Mason; they’ve had fewer than 10 rows together but they've known each other since Manson delivered a speech to Mason's crew before a Maadi Cup.
They then finished one-two in the single sculls at last year's nationals and everything fell into place.
“We [he and Mason] were both going really well back then,” Manson recalled of the nationals.
“We actually asked if we could race the double together at that regatta thinking that we could be quite a decent double – I wasn't in the Rowing New Zealand system then, I was rowing club and we were told that we weren't allowed.
“Maybe that would have given us a little bit of a head start!”
To be fair, they did have a bit of chemistry already thanks to Mason’s past studies.
“I used to wake up in the middle of the night to watch his races when I was young and now I'm rowing with him,” Mason said.
“It's cool in that aspect but at the same time I need to step up and try and meet those standards now.”
Having qualified the single sculls boat for the Tokyo Olympics, Manson failed to finish on the podium at the world championships, losing enjoyment for the sport and eventually leading to his retirement in 2020.
But now that he’s back, he’s making the most of his second venture.
“Even in the past, although it's been like a squad it's been very competitive but it's more sort of everyone's out to get each other rather than being there to support each other and build each other up,” he said.
“So I think that's sort of the culture I've definitely wanted to help foster in this group.”
Others, such as Rowing NZ’s head of athletic performance Ryan Turfey, are starting to notice it.
“In some ways, it’s like he’s never left,” Turfey said.
“He’s still the same athlete, he’s still the same person and his transition back into it from a performance perspective kind of supports that.”
Manson and Mason head to Europe together next week for World Cups and the World Championships with the aim of qualifying for next year’s Olympics and they’re quietly confident they can put together a good run.
“I feel like we know that we can be really fast,” Mason said.
“Even now, we could go out there and do a performance that we'd be really proud of but it's just getting that training behind us so we can do it consistently.”
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