His legs will be more scrawny than most of his fellow competitors’ and he will have sat in a boat only a handful of times before the start, but Tim Brabants will have a few things in his favour when he takes part in his first — and possibly last — rowing race, the Pairs Head, tomorrow.

First, he has an Olympic gold medal, earned in the 1,000 metres kayak single in Beijing, to give him the confidence in his athleticism, even if his technique is ropy. Secondly, he may have started learning to handle oars only last month, but his times on the indoor ergo machine are comparable to many elite rowers. Thirdly, he will have Britain’s finest sculler sitting in front of him in the boat.

Alan Campbell, who came fifth in the single sculls Olympic final only two months after knee surgery, says that the idea to get Brabants in a rowing boat was cooked up in Beijing. “It’s pretty hazy because there was a lot of alcohol involved, but I mentioned the idea, Tim got excited and then I got stuck in a situation I can’t get out of,” Campbell said. “But Tim is training hard, showing talent and I’m actually worried he will show me up.”

Campbell has twice won the Pairs Head, a curtain-raiser to the winter season rowed on the Thames from Chiswick to Hammersmith. He won it with Mahe Drysdale, the triple world champion in single sculls, in 2005 and with Mike Hennessy, a 2004 Olympian who has been coaching Brabants for tomorrow’s race, in 2003.

Yet the incentive to win a third title is perhaps more pressing than ever thanks to a side bet struck in China with the Australia women’s pair. “If we win, they have said they will wash my boat at the first World Cup \ next year wearing bikinis,” Campbell said. “But if we don’t win, then I have to wash their boat wearing a ‘mankini’ — the thing Borat wears — in front of the rest of the rowing world. I could get huge kudos for this or look a complete prat.”

The scratch pairing had different experiences in Beijing, although as Brabants said: “We were both leading our finals after 1,000 metres, it’s just that I got to stop then.” That Campbell was in front at halfway was astounding, given his battle with injury. Having won the first of this year’s three World Cup races, in Munich, he suffered a tooth abscess before the second, in Lucerne, and had to take painkillers to help him to sleep.

The infection spread to his right knee, so instead of competing in the third World Cup regatta, he was under the surgeon’s knife. “After four years of preparation I woke up in hospital and the surgeon wasn’t enthusiastic about my chances,” he said. “It was the lowest I’ve ever felt.”

Campbell had to fight his way back to fitness day by day and although he came second in a thrilling Olympic semi-final and led early in the final, his tanks were exhausted and he finished fifth. “It’s not an excuse, but that was a very hard experience for me and I just have to do better in 2012,” Campbell said.

A week after his final, Campbell was watching Brabants win his gold medal in the K1 1,000 metres and then take bronze the next day in the K1 500 metres. “I was exhausted by the second final. If I had started my kick earlier I could have come second, but there are always ‘what ifs’,” Brabants said. The 31-year-old has decided to take 18 months out of racing kayaks to concentrate on his medical career. “I’ll take stock after that and see what my body is saying about 2012,” he said.

He is trying rowing purely as a new way of keeping fit, although his ergo time of 6min 3sec for 2,000 metres is only nine seconds slower than the British record for his age group. By tomorrow, however, he will have had only 11 outings in a boat and he was keen to emphasise that he did not plan to emulate Rebecca Romero, the rower-turned-cyclist, and aim for a gold medal in a second sport.

“Like any athlete, I have the ability to be coached, but the rowing regime is particularly hard and I’ve found the technique difficult,” Brabants said. “Take the catch: in the kayak you hit the water hard and put all your weight behind it. In sculling you have to drop the blades in the water before pulling. It’s something different to get used to.”

Campbell begged to differ. “If Tim sticks at rowing, he has the body to cope,” he said. “It is his mental skill that is so good. Our race on Saturday may be a bit scratchy, but we’ll be the mentally toughest crew out there. If we can hold our heads together for 12 minutes, we can beat crews that have been training together for months.”

And if they do, we will be spared the sight of Campbell in a mankini next summer. The stakes could not be higher.