New Zealand Olympic rowing champion Rob Waddell is to return to the sport but will combine it with his day job on the Team New Zealand America's Cup squad.

Waddell, who won gold medals at the 1998 and 1999 world rowing championships and the 2000 Olympics, before becoming a grinder for the 2003 America's Cup defense and this year's unsuccessful challenge, said at the weekend that he has been back to boat for over two months.

Waddell said rowing would be a "short-term commitment, first through to trials, and then perhaps to the Olympics."

He has constructed a training program with NZ National Team which allows him to combine the two sports. But he said his level of fitness, whether he could reach the required standard quickly enough and the logistics of combining the two sports, meant he was unable to say he was definitely committed to trial for a national boat.

Rowing New Zealand high performance manager Andrew Matheson said that it was up to Waddell to prove himself between now and February's national championship and that it is "premature" to discuss which crew might accommodate him at Beijing.

NZ National Team agreed Waddell could return to competitive rowing, although probably only until the end of the Beijing Olympics.

(Xinhua News Agency November 19, 2007)