Canoeing: Big chill ends Games hopes

By DAVID LEGGAT

Look ahead, not back is the attitude canoeing legend Ian Ferguson is taking after a grim week for the sport on the international stage.

New Zealand, coached by Olympic champion Ferguson, had their Athens Games aspirations dumped into the cold waters of Poznan, Poland, in the final qualifying regatta. The upshot is that New Zealand will be represented in Athens in August by just world champion Ben Fouhy in the K1 1000m, and by Fouhy and Steven Ferguson in the K2 1000m.

Gone are the chances of Ferguson emulating his father in the K1 500m, and of a K4 1000m, which was the big hope to enlarge the representation in Athens.

Instead, Ferguson's attention is now on having the pair tuned perfectly for Athens. They will contest a high-calibre World Cup regatta at Racice, in the Czech Republic from June 18-20.

Ferguson admits part of the blame for the tumble in Poland was administrative. Plans to contest a regatta in the warmth of Greece were shelved when the event was cancelled.

Instead, they headed for Cologne and three weeks' training in what turned out to be unusually cold, totally unsuitable weather. Steven Ferguson picked up an injury during a flight, Fouhy twinged a back muscle in beating world champion Australian Nathan Baggaley in a 500m race, and they affected the K4 crew.

"It was so damn cold," Ian Ferguson said. "You were breathing steam most mornings and in Poland it hailed for 15 minutes while the guys were on the water warming up."

Ferguson said the paddlers took their defeats hard.

"They really had their minds set on it, they'd done the hard training, they'd given up their jobs and I think if we'd done it a different way they would have done it. We just didn't know it was going to be so cold."

Ferguson insisted Fouhy and Steven Ferguson would be in the frame in Athens. "They are just ripping along, going well."