The chill, choppy waters and winding course of the Thames in winter may bear little comparison to the picturesque stillness of Lake Karapiro on New Zealand’s North Island, but Alan Campbell’s achievement in winning the 168th Wingfield Sculls race on the Tideway yesterday raises hopes of success in the World Championships final in exactly one year’s time.

Britain has not had a world champion single sculler since Ted Phelps won the professional title in 1932, but Campbell, from Northern Ireland, is rapidly becoming a genuine contender. At this year’s World Championships in Poland, he rowed the second fastest 2,000 metres in history, but still finished behind Mahé Drysdale, who won his fourth world title. He got his own back yesterday.

Campbell first won the Wingfield, which has been contested since 1830, in 2006. Drysdale won in the two years after, but they had never faced each other on the course from Putney to Mortlake that, at 4¼ miles, is more than three times longer than international races. Campbell blitzed Drysdale off the start yesterday, taking out an eight-second lead on the New Zealander by the Mile Post, and held on to win by three lengths in 20min 27sec. Graeme Coleman was third, a minute farther back.

At Barnes Bridge, Campbell was on pace to beat the race record, which has stood for 15 years, but with a brisk crosswind he eased back on the river, if not on his rival. “If we’d had a tailwind there would have been a few records gone,” Campbell said. “I put in a huge push to the first marker and then could control the race. I couldn’t have taken another stroke at the end.”

“The race went to plan and he executed it perfectly,” Bill Barry, Campbell’s coach, said. He added that Campbell can become Britain’s first Olympic champion in the single scull since Jack Beresford in 1924. “Alan was half a length behind Mahé at the Worlds,” he said. “Our plan is to make up a length and a half by 2012. He is a very, very determined guy.”

Sophie Hosking defended her women’s title, beating Jessica Eddie by 30 seconds.

Explore More Sport

• Athletics

• Boxing

• Cycling

• Sailing

• US Sport