Kayaking: Sea change hits our top kayaker's life

Ben Fouhy is trying something new. Amid speculation about whether he would stick with kayaking or not, the K1 1000m Olympic silver medallist has been quietly going through a change.

The 25-year-old yesterday announced what he wanted to do with his life: yes, he wants to keep paddling. But he has become a different man from the tensed-up, singularly-focused athlete who went to Athens.

In a change of attitude, he wants to have fun, to relax. And for the first time, he and girlfriend Katie Pocock (a fellow paddler) will be moving into a place of their own.

For the past few months, Fouhy has been staying with friends in a spare sleep-out.

Last year, he and Pocock spent much of the year on the road, travelling and competing, never having a place to call home. Fouhy spent time before that staying with others.

"It's fine when you're 25 but what's happening now is I'm thinking, 'What sort of headspace do I want to be in when I'm 29'?" Fouhy said yesterday.

"It's going to be really grounding for myself and [Katie] to be able to move in somewhere and just have a base.

"I want to have a lot more fun over the next couple of years and not have to stress about things - go overseas, race, come back home and relax."

This week, he signed a four-year, six-figure sponsorship deal with Hasler, an office products and audio visual company, whose managing director Graeme Marwick, a multi-sport competitor, first eyed Fouhy across Lake Pupuke and approached him with an offer he could not refuse.

The changes are all part of a new approach Fouhy believes will help him make it to the 2008 Beijing Olympics where he is determined to improve his Athens' placing, a result he has now come to accept as "an awesome achievement".

He is also satisfied that the eighth place he and Steven Ferguson came in the K2 1000m was the best result they could have achieved on that particular day.

For the first 700m of the race, he felt they could win. "But in the last 200m, it was like we'd hooked an anchor."

During his months of reflection, Fouhy has reviewed the K2 result, like other less than satisfactory aspects of his Olympic campaign, to make him better prepared for Beijing.

He hopes that selection policies will change to avoid a situation like that he faced last year when, despite being the world champion, he had to peak in February to win a national selection trial.

"I want to get overseas, stay in really good shape and pick and choose the races, not be so concerned with how I race in New Zealand."

Fouhy also said he would hope to avoid another campaign like the failed attempt to qualify a K4 crew of Fouhy, Ferguson, Dave Kennedy and Owen Hughes.

"The guys might not realise it but we were genuinely disappointed we didn't qualify. Some athletes have been able to [be in K1, K2 and K4 crews] in the past, but I wasn't that strong. I'd like to be more focused on K1 and K2."

Of Hughes' text message sent out of frustration on the eve of the Olympic finals, Fouhy said he could understand Hughes' feelings, even if he did not agree with the way he went about expressing them.

The text message row as well as rumours about a bust-up between Fouhy and Ian Ferguson created an impression in Athens that the kayak team was an unhappy one. But asked if there had been friction in his relationship with Ferguson snr, Fouhy said: "Oh, jeez, yeah - but it was just like any other relationship. We have our ups and downs. I was pretty intense up there, pretty emotional, I'd put everything into it.

"Yes, Ferg and I had differences of opinion, but so does everybody."

Ferguson will remain Fouhy's coach on technique, and he will keep working with sports physiologist Darrell Bonetti, who has helped him with programmes since 1997.

Having spent the summer cycling, Fouhy is entering one more event for fun, teaming up with triple world mountain running champion Jonathan Wyatt for the Coast to Coast next month.

Fouhy will then turn his attention back to sprint kayaking, aiming for the world cup events in May and the world championships in Croatia in August.

As well as the K1, he and Steven Ferguson will also paddle the K2. Last week, they bumped into each other at Lake Pupuke and decided on the spur of the moment to hop in a boat, the first time they have done so together since Athens.

It felt good.

"We're a natural crew, we've definitely got a gift there and it's just going to be a matter of training and seeing what we can come up with."

1.516s

The difference between Fouhy and gold medallist Norwegian Eirik Veraas Larsen in the Olympic final.

2008

The year of the Beijing Olympics when Fouhy hopes to win gold.

15th

Where Fouhy finished last time he competed in the Coast to Coast.