Canoeing: National coaching position for Fouhy

Ben Fouhy has been working with the women's K4 team. Photo / APN

Ben Fouhy has returned to canoe racing, this time as a coach ahead of this week's world championships in Moscow.

Fouhy has been assisting head coach Gordon Walker with the women's K4 team, who will contest the 500m race on Krylatskoye Canal this week as the sport attempts to build on the success of 2012 Olympic gold medallist Lisa Carrington and consequent boost in taxpayer funding. They received $1.2 million in High Performance Sport New Zealand's 2014 budget.

Fouhy won the 2003 world championship in the K1 1000m and was a silver medallist at the Athens Olympics the following year. The 35-year-old retired from top competition last year.

He brought the sport back to the New Zealand public consciousness after the halcyon days of the 1980s when Ian Ferguson, Paul MacDonald, Alan Thompson and Grant Bramwell were at the forefront of the sport.

Fouhy's pedigree is undisputed and he's experienced the highs and lows of competing at the top level.

CRNZ high performance manager Grant Restall said: "Ben has taken a short-term role for two months with CRNZ going through to the world champs," he said. "He's working under Gordon, who is leading the campaign with Ben's help. Ben is doing the day-to-day coaching and having input into the overall plan."

Teneale Hatton, Aimee Fisher, Jaimee Lovett and Caitlin Ryan will represent New Zealand in the Olympic K4 discipline. The crew finished seventh at their most recent World Cup in the Czech Republic.

In the lead-up to the year's pinnacle event, they trained in Portugal at a centre 150km south of Porto sponsored by kayak manufacturer Nelo. The venue enabled them to paddle three hours in several directions on the lake.

Carrington remains New Zealand's best medal hope in Olympic-standard disciplines where she will contest the K1 200m and 500m.

Hatton is a medal contender in the K1 1000m and 5000m events which she won in the Czech Republic. She's the defending world champion over 5000m.

Darryl Fitzgerald, Marty McDowell, Jarrod Fitzgerald and Zac Quickenden will contest the men's K4 1000m and Scott Bicknell will race the K1 200m after his K2 partner Andrew Roy withdrew with injury.