Canoeing: NZ body hits back at attacks on selection process

By JULIE ASH

A scathing document criticising Canoe Racing NZ's Olympic selection process and coach Ian Ferguson has been held like "a gun to our head", says president Tim Jago.

Owen Hughes, who was 31st in the whitewater kayak event at the 1996 Games and was in New Zealand's K4 crew who failed to qualify for Athens, yesterday released a document criticising the organisation's selection process and accused coach Ian Ferguson of favouring his son Steven.

"My main gripe is that New Zealand qualified three spots for the Olympics and we gave one of them back," Hughes said referring to Steven Ferguson's decision to paddle slowly in the K1 500m.

"The other gripe is that we have a member of a family on the selecting board for Athens ... it is a major conflict of interest."

Jago said the "inaccurate" paper had been held "like a gun to our head for three weeks or so".

He said a month ago Hughes had threatened to release the document at an unspecified time and said he was going to disrupt the canoeists' buildup at the Olympics.

"We tried to defuse him. It is not a great way for an international competitor to go out," Jago said.

Hughes released the paper a day after Steven Ferguson's K1 500m heat. Ferguson, troubled with a back strain, paddled slowly to reserve energy for the K2 1000m final where he and Fouhy are medal prospects.

Hughes said someone else should have competed in the K1 500m event. Canoe Racing New Zealand say no one else had met selection criteria.

Hughes said that was because no one was given the chance.

"We were always told to concentrate on the K4 and not worry about the K1 500m spot because that would be raced off for afterwards."

That never happened.

Hughes, who is the New Zealand K1 500m champion, said an Olympic spot in the K1 500m could have been secured in the final qualifying event in Poland but coach Ferguson was adamant the K4 team concentrate solely ontheir event.

"Steven Ferguson raced and once again went down the course like he did the other day."

In relation to Ian Ferguson's alleged favouritism towards his son, Jago said the coach was one of three selectors.

* Ben Fouhy will line up between the new and old world record holders tomorrow. The K1 1000m semifinals were held last night to find the six who would join Fouhy and the other two heat winners in the final.

As expected, Australia's Nathan Baggaley and Canada's Adam van Koeverden easily won the two semis.

Fouhy will race in lane five between Eirik Veraas Larsen, of Norway, and Tim Brabants, the British paddler who beat Larsen's world best in the heats with 3m 24.412s. Baggaley and van Koeverden are in lanes three and seven.