Drysdale won the three world titles between the Athens and Beijing Olympics but on the biggest stage last year he failed to perform claiming only the bronze medal behind Olaf Tufte (Norway) and Ondej Synek (Czech Republic).

Campbell was fifth in that Olympic final but had set his marker for this season down three weeks ago winning the opening World Cup regatta in Spain.

Drysdale wasn't in that race so this was the first time the big four had met since Shunyi last August.

Campbell blasted off the start and led by nearly two seconds at the 500m mark but the Kiwi had closed that gap by the halfway mark and had turned it into a two second advantage in favour of himself with 500m remaining.

Campbell couldn't respond but he did hold off the fast finishing double Olympic champion Tufte who overtook Synek to clinch third place.

"I have definitely moved on this year but Mahe just had too much in the middle of the race today. Henley's next. That's my territory and he'll have to work hard there to beat me," said Campbell.

The Henley regatta comes up before the final World Cup event at Lucerne in three weeks time.

Coleraine's Stephen Feeney and his team mates in the GB lightweight four – Chris Bartley, Chris Boddy and Bob Hewitt – showed the potential they have with a fourth place finish in one of the races of the day.

The inexperienced quartet, still on a steep learning curve, were battling Olympic champions Denmark, Germany and China and were in a medal position with 500m to go, only to be overtaken by the Chinese on the line, losing the bronze by half a second. It was a big improvement on Spain three weeks ago.

"This was a huge step forward to go from eleven seconds behind the leaders to just a couple. We knew we were a lot more confident going into this weekend and we put ourselves right in the mix.

"We are disappointed to be rowed out of medal perhaps but this was a lot better," said Feeney.

"We have a lot more room for improvement than the other crews because we haven't been together for as long as they have.

"It should make Lucerne a lot more interesting to see how it pans out and I'm already looking forward to the racing there."

Karen Cromie from Ballinamallard and her partner Vincent Culhane finished sixth in their international debut for Ireland in the trunk and arms final in the adaptive racing on Saturday.