Canoeing: Fouhy not good enough, says rival

3.10pm - By DANIEL GILHOOLY

ATHENS - The man capable of sending ripples through Ben Fouhy's bid for Olympic gold questions whether the New Zealander is good enough to repeat his stunning canoeing triumphs of 2003.

Norwegian strong man Eirik Veraas Larsen shapes as Fouhy's biggest rival in the K1 1000m final on Friday, after both cruised through their heats unchallenged yesterday.

After winning the 2002 world championship title, Larsen was shunted into fourth place last year at Atlanta in a race won by relative newcomer Fouhy.

Larsen wasn't alone in being surprised at the sudden emergence of the former multi-sport exponent at that event and other international regattas last year.

"He came from nothing and just won medals. If he can manage to do the same again this year I'll be even more impressed," Larsen told NZPA.

"But it's much harder to defend a title than coming from nothing. So we'll see."

Larsen has been in superb form this year, setting a world record three minutes 24.920 seconds in a regatta at Germany where Fouhy, still going through his heavy training period, was third.

That record fell to surprise package Tim Brabants yesterday, after the Briton took advantage of a strong tailwind to knock more than half a second off the mark.

Larsen wouldn't single out any of his rivals for attention, saying Fouhy, Australian Nathan Baggaley, Canadian Adam van Koeverden and now Brabants were all dangerous.

"Before the heats I didn't think Tim was going to be a threat to the medals but now I think he will be. There are five guys there now," Larsen said.

Fouhy also professed surprise at the performance of Brabants, the Sydney Olympic bronze medallist who he had trained with for a month at Nottingham in the leadup to these Games.

"I expected him to do well because he's a guy who rises to the big occasion but I didn't expect this," Fouhy said.

"He's the fastest man in the world now, so good on him and he had a faster heat than the rest of us. You can't take anything away from him.

"But Eirik's still the guy to watch. He wasn't really pushed in his heat so it's hard to know what to think."

Larsen and Nils Olav Fjeldheim were the fastest K2, 1000m qualifiers for Norway yesterday, with world champion Swedes Markus Oscarsson and Henrik Nilsson pipping Fouhy and Steven Ferguson in the other heat.

The New Zealanders impressed Larsen in registering the third-quickest time and advancing to the final.

"Definitely Sweden are the toughest crew but I think New Zealand raced a very good race," Larsen said.

"I didn't even think they would be in the top three in their heat so they surprised me."

- NZPA