By Charlotte Tonkin
Rower Rob Hamill has been embarrassed to discover he's left a trail of top-of-the-line oars scattered along state highway 4, in the central North Island.
The oars belong to some of New Zealand's leading rowers, including Mahe Drysdale.
Rob Hamill knows what it's like to be a world class champ, but after losing eight high performance rowing oars he's feeling like a world class chump.
“One guy said to me ‘mate how did you row the Atlantic if you can't even get an oar down the road’,” Hamill says.
Hamill lost the carbon fibre oars yesterday en route to Whanganui for the Billy Webb challenge, an endurance rowing event. He's willing to take the blame but says someone else didn't tie them on properly.
After leaving Lake Karapiro, Hamill suspects the oars fell off one by one anywhere between Taumanranui and National Park which is where he realised they were gone when he stopped for petrol.
Passersby told him they'd seen a ute carrying two oars but Hamill could only find one on the side of the road, near Owhango.
That oar belongs to Louise Ayling, the world light-weight single sculls silver medallist.
Among the missing, is one of Mahe Drysdale's oars, it's got his name on it and it's hoped someone's not keeping it as a souvenir.
“I actually rang Mahe last night to give him the good news and he was his usual relaxed self he didn't seem too fazed by it but deep down I'm sure he's thinking it's not the best of situations,” Hamill says.
So far one oar has been handed in to the Ohakune police station but Hamill's desperate for the other six to be in Whanganui by tomorrow night for race day.
Hamill's offering an event t-shirt signed by all the rowers as a reward for the return of the oars.
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