Canoeing: Joy and heartbreak

By DAVID LEGGAT in Athens

He had his eye on the big prize, but paddler Ben Fouhy was delighted with his silver medal in last night's sizzling K1 1000m final at Lake Schinias.

World champion Fouhy had to settle for second, beaten by formidable Norwegian Eirik Veraas Larsen, who belted down the course in 3m 25.897s, 1.516s ahead of the Taumarunui 25-year-old.

Canadian Adam van Koeverden took third, .805s behind Fouhy.

The silver gave New Zealand three medals in two days after the triathlon 1-2 finish on Thursday.

It takes New Zealand's tally at these Games to three golds and two silver medals. That surpasses in number and colours the 2000 Sydney Games return of one gold and three bronze.

Fouhy's win produced New Zealand's eighth canoeing medal, putting the sport behind only athletics (18), yachting (15), rowing (13) and equestrian (9) in the pecking order of the country's most successful Olympic sports.

Just over an hour after that race, Fouhy and Steven Ferguson fell away towards the end of the K2 1000m final to finish eighth in the field of nine in 3m 21.336s.

They were almost 3s behind Swedish winners Markus Oscarsson and Henrik Nilsson.

When Fouhy won his world title in Atlanta last year, Larsen was fourth and van Koeverden second.

But Fouhy had no gripes last night. He admitted he was beaten by a better paddler.

"Eirik's made a massive jump. I'm paddling three seconds faster than I was at the worlds last year.

"This year he's superior," Fouhy said.

"Obviously it would have been everything to win but I did my best and I can live with that result.

"I couldn't have raced it any better."

Racing in a slight headwind, Fouhy was among the slower paddlers out of the blocks and he was fifth at the halfway mark.

With 250m left he had eased up to third and pegged back van Koeverden inside the final 100m. Larsen, however, was beyond his reach.

"I knew Larsen was going to be tough, he was going to be the smart man to follow.

"I was hoping to pull him in, I did my best but it wasn't quite enough," Fouhy added.

Team coach Ian Ferguson, who has five Olympic medals sitting in his top drawer at home in Takapuna, had high hopes Fouhy would follow Alan Thompson from the stunningly successful 1984 Los Angeles regatta as the second New Zealand K1 1000m Olympic champion.

"Pretty good, pretty good," he said. "But not quite the best."

Fouhy shied away from discussing whether he would be in Beijing for the 2008 Olympics.

It has been a tough two years preparing for Athens and he said he would take some time to reflect on his sporting direction. He likes the idea of returning to multisport competition at some point.

"I don't want to stand here and give you the ideal answer that I'm going to still be kayaking in 20 years' time," he said.

"I don't want lie about it. To be honest I just don't have any idea at all. I know I want be a competitive athlete."

The K2 final was raced against a backdrop of acrimony.

There were allegations of favouritism on the part of Ian Ferguson from a national squad member, Owen Hughes, who missed Olympic selection, plus controversy over Steven Ferguson deliberately coming in last in the K1 500 heat to protect his back.