Kayaking: Ferguson cruises to last

9.45pm

Kayaker Steven Ferguson may have laid down in his K1 500m heat today - but the Olympic medal prospect is the polar opposite of Australia's "Laydown" Sally.

There were no withering glares from the New Zealand canoeing team after the 24-year-old deliberately paddled in slow motion to finish last and avoid Thursday's semifinals on the Schinias course.

Unlike vilified Australian Sally Robbins, who gave up pulling 500m from the finish of the women's eight final last weekend, the selfless Aucklander instead cast himself as the ultimate team player by easing off.

Nursing a back injury, Ferguson was under instructions to finish a distant last in the field of 28, and therefore be the only paddler not to make the three semifinals.

The scenario was forced on him by his father and coach Ian Ferguson, who did not want his son to risk aggravating the injury before Friday's K2 1000m final, where Ben Fouhy and Steven are strong medal prospects.

Throwing the race was no easy task for Steven, who, after reluctantly putting his competitive instincts on hold, almost floated past pedestrian Seychelle's representative Tony Lespoir when a strong tailwind kicked in.

"He was hating doing that. He's been worried. He just didn't want to do it but he knew he had to for all the right reasons," Ian told NZPA.

Steven could not simply withdraw from the race as regatta regulations meant he would have been disqualified from the K2 final.

In the K1 he clocked a time of two minutes 6.937 seconds - more than 30sec slower than leading qualifier Eirik Veraas Larsen of Norway.

Proving his sluggish performance had not compromised his back injury, Steven upped his rate after crossing the line and paddled significantly quicker in his warmdown session.

Meanwhile, the New Zealand showjumping team narrowly missed qualifying for an Olympic final for the first time, missing out by one place after finishing 12th at the Markopoulo Olympic Equestrian Centre.

After Daniel Meech scored six penalty points, Grant Cashmore 12 and Guy Thomas 13, New Zealand were placed ninth with one rider remaining but were eventually run down.

Bruce Goodin and Braveheart needed to record less than 13 penalty points to improve New Zealand's standing but brought down seven rails (28 points) to see their score discarded.

New Zealand were then sitting ducks as the last nations competed.

Ireland pushed New Zealand back to 10th before French rider Eric Lavet delivered the coup de grace.

He would have needed to dislodge six fences (24 points) for the New Zealanders to make the cut but despite some nervous moments, knocked off only four.

- NZPA