Canoeing: Fouhy's big test

by EUGENE BINGHAM

Last November, a stunned group of the world's top paddlers gathered to figure out what had just happened to them.

The three men, an Australian, a Norwegian and a Canadian, had been the leading contenders for the K1 1000m world championships two months earlier, but they had suffered a shock loss at the hands of a young New Zealander.

Ben Fouhy had emerged from virtually nowhere to steal the world crown from them and they were determined he would not do the same to them at the Olympics.

Tonight, at the Schinias canoeing course north-east of Athens, Fouhy will be trying to do just that, lining up against those three men in a race to decide who will be crowned Olympic champion. It will be one of the most closely fought Olympic finals in years with the four men showing that on any given day, they are all capable of winning.

The extraordinary war council in Florida last year brought together Adam van Koeverden (Canada), Nathan Baggaley (Australia) and Eirik Veraas Larsen (Norway). At the world championships in Gainesville, Georgia, last year, they had come second, third and fourth behind Fouhy.

They trained together for a month, fierce rivals on the water but friends off it, figuring out how to beat the New Zealander.

Van Koeverden in particular could not understand how Fouhy had snuck up on them.

"If you talk to Ben he claims that he trained for two years in a kayak, never stepped in a sprint kayak before that and started going [3m 30s for the 1000m] the first day he was in," he said this week. "That is fairly unbelievable actually."

Van Koeverden's assessment does not take account of the fact that Fouhy did have a background in endurance sports, including marathon kayaking, in which he competed internationally.

Other rivals think Fouhy's success last year was a one-off and that he will not be able to repeat it tonight, even though he has continued to perform well in the World Cup and easily won his heat on Monday to qualify automatically for the final.

Baggaley said Fouhy would be relying on the right conditions. "He's going well, but then again certain conditions suit certain paddlers and Ben's influenced by conditions."

Talking to Fouhy's rivals, it is obvious that he is the outsider of the top group.

But Fouhy has not been training alone. In Auckland, he trains with his K2 1000m partner, Steven Ferguson. In the build-up to the Games, he also spent time in Britain training and racing with Tim Brabants, the Briton who came third in Sydney. While Brabants has been slightly off the pace this year, he pulled out a stellar performance on Monday, breaking Larsen's world best time.

Ian Ferguson, Fouhy's coach and a four-time gold medallist, says Brabants' performance had buoyed Fouhy because the New Zealander knew that he was several seconds faster. "He will be going really fast for the final and I reckon he'd be aiming for the world record," said Ferguson.



THE TOP FOUR


Ben Fouhy, New Zealand

Best time: 3m 25.733s

Eirik Veraas Larsen, Norway

Best time: 3m 24.920s

Nathan Baggaley, Australia

Best time: 3m 25.373s

Adam van Koeverden, Canada

Best time: 3m 25.840s