Rob Waddell has defended his low-key build-up to challenging for the right to contest rowing?s single sculls at the Olympic Games.

He has held off Mahe Drysdale by half a length in the Cambridge Town Cup at Lake Karapiro, making it back-to-back wins. Waddell says he now knows he has what it takes again. He says he has had to drop 20 kilograms having not rowed for seven years.

Drysdale has said he will not use an Australian passport to get to the Beijing Olympics if he is beaten out of contention by Waddell.