KEY POINTS:
Ben Fouhy's Olympic campaign hit a health snag, but rising talent Erin Taylor continued her improvement at the opening World Cup canoeing regatta in Hungary over the weekend.
Former world champion Fouhy, who won silver at the Athens Olympics four years ago, had to withdraw from the K1 1000m event with a throat infection. He had been on antibiotics and there was hope that he would be fit enough to race, but instead will wait until the next cup regatta in Duisberg, Germany on June 13.
Taylor turned 21 on Saturday and marked the occasion by winning the K1 500m B final.
A year ago, she was 17th in the event. Her win placed her 10th overall.
She clocked 2m 3.22 in beating Serbian Antonia Nadj. Taylor had finished fourth in her semifinal, from which the first three placegetters qualified for the A final.
The event also gave the North Shore paddler a good indication of what she'll need to do to make her mark at the Beijing Olympics. Hungarian Katalin Kovacs won the A final in 1m 58s.
Steven Ferguson was disqualified in his heat of the K1 500m for shifting more than 1m either side of the middle of his lane.
But in the K2 1000m, he and Mike Walker won their semifinal with an encouraging performance in 3m 25.3s before finishing sixth in the final in 3m 22.7s.
