New Zealand rowing mastermind Dick Tonks is a man on edge.
Six months out from the London Olympics, and despite his team amassing a swag of medals at last year's world rowing championships in Bled, Tonks is taking nothing for granted.
"There are no guarantees at the Olympics - it's a very small regatta, but it's very unpredictable," Tonks told NZ Newswire.
"Everybody steps up a little bit, you never know who's going to perform."
New Zealand picked up four golds, a silver and four bronzes at the Bled world championships in September last year.
Eric Murray and Hamish Bond, unbeaten in the men's pair since 2009, won their third consecutive world title while Rebecca Scown and Juliette Haigh repeated the effort in the women's pair.
Mahe Drysdale put 18 months of injury behind him to win his fifth single sculls world championship gold, and Nathan Cohen and Joseph Sullivan defended their title in the double sculls with a last-gasp win.
However, Tonks is adamant those results count for nothing in an Olympic year.
"A number of our results last year were close races. None of the medals are assured in London.
"Some people win gold medals at the Olympics who've never won anything, and you never hear of them again. They rise to the occasion, and that's what you've got to be watchful of."
Rowing has already qualified 11 boats for the Games, and Tonks is hopeful of adding possibly two more, given the competition in the New Zealand squad for places in the women's quad, and the men's four and eight.
The shakedown for places continues in earnest at the national championships at Lake Karapiro from February 14-18, followed by the Olympic trials at the same venue from February 25-March 2.
More boats could secure an Olympic start with winning performances at the pre-qualifying regatta at Lucerne in May.
Tonks is taking a low-key approach to the Olympics, saying only that it would be good to better the 2008 Olympics medal return of gold and two bronzes: "We hope to do better than that, but that was a fairly good result."
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