KEY POINTS:
Top paddler Ben Fouhy's world championship campaign is off to an ignominious start.
Fouhy, K1 1000m world champion in 2003 and silver medallist at the Athens Olympics three years ago, failed to make either the A or B finals at the World Cup regatta in Szeged, Hungary, finishing
fourth in the C final.
Fouhy was third in his heat, but seventh in his semifinal, clocking 3min 41.328s.
That relegated him into the bottom group, where he finished fourth in 3m 39.880s, and left him 22nd overall at the regatta in his premier event. The 28-year-old also entered the K1 500m but finished last in his heat in 1m 47.253s.
"He was very surprised at what happened. He couldn't believe it," New Zealand team manager Grant Restall said from Hungary last night. "His performance was well below par and we're still working through that. But he's definitely not down in the dumps.
"He's been at the top for five years, and at some stage you're going to hit a flat spot."
As evidence of some wonky results in Hungary, the Olympic K1 1000m champion, Norwegian Erik Veraas Larsen, was last in the K1 500m B final and nowhere to be seen in the longer event. Both titles were won by Canadian Adam van Koeverden , who is the Olympic K1 500m champion and won bronze behind Larsen and Fouhy in Athens.
Fouhy will get back into training at the New Zealand squad's camp in Racice, Czech Republic for the next week.
The best result for the New Zealand squad came in the K2 1000m where Steven Ferguson and Mike Walker finished fifth in the A final, clocking 3m 13.479s, crossing behind Hungarians Gabor Kucsera and Zoltan Kammerer , who won in 3m 11.217s. Germany were second, and France third and fourth.
The New Zealanders' strong form, including winning their semifinal, augurs well for Olympic qualification, which takes place at the world champs in Duisberg, Germany, from August 9-12.
Ferguson was also seventh in the K1 500m A final; Auckland teenager Erin Taylor impressed in finishing 13th overall in the K1 500m, while the quartet of Anne Cairns, Connie Richards, Agnes Szabo and Kristina Anglem were second in the K4 500m B final in 1m 36.841s, behind Belarus.
It was the best cup result by a New Zealand women's crew.
The next World Cup regatta is at Gerardmer, France starting on June 1.