KEY POINTS:
New Zealand kayaking officials have vowed to fight for a re-run after their protest about unfair conditions at yesterday's Olympic qualification event in Sydney was quashed.
Shattered K1 500m paddlers Troy Burbridge and Erin Taylor missed Olympic selection at the hands of Australians Tony Schumacher and Alana Nicholls, who won their country the Oceania men's and women's qualifying spots for Beijing.
Both New Zealanders claimed they were hampered by clumps of weeds in the water at Penrith's Sydney International Regatta Centre, which got caught on their rudders and slowed them dramatically.
New Zealand manager Grant Restall immediately fired in a protest, asking officials to send out a sweeper boat to clear the weeds and re-run the Olympic races later in the day.
But chief official Graham Halford and his race committee threw it out, after they delayed the Oceania championship heats by one hour.
"We dismissed the protest on the grounds that the weed is part of the field of play for everybody," Halford said.
Restall discussed the issue with New Zealand coaches, Olympic gold medallists Ian Ferguson and Paul MacDonald, and said he was likely to lodge a formal appeal.
Halford said that would be heard by an appeals committee before the regatta ends this week.
"It is an outdoor sport and people accept that, but for Olympic qualification it's got to be fair," said Restall.
"Troy's very upset and so is Erin. They've put a lot of time and effort into this and to come out and not get a fair race is pretty gut-wrenching for any athlete.
"They knew they only had one chance today."
Both New Zealanders were well beaten.
Burbridge was fifth in the men's race, 7 seconds behind Schumacher who finished second but was Australia's nominated paddler.
Taylor was fourth, three boat lengths behind Nicholls who finished second to Australia's leading woman paddler Chantal Meek, who had already qualified for the Olympics as part of a K4 boat.
New Zealand's top paddler Ben Fouhy, a silver medallist at Athens in 2004, slammed the conditions after finishing third in his K1 500m heat.
"It defies belief, I think it's absolutely appalling," he said.
"I paddled down my lane and I would have deviated 2-3 feet either side of the centre line in my lane throughout the 500m race just to try and avoid the weed."
Restall said the conditions were also unfair for members of the Australian team, with this week's regatta also doubling as their Olympic trials.
Schumacher and Nicholls aren't automatically guaranteed to compete at Beijing despite qualifying an Australian boat, and still have to earn their K1 500m spots at the trials.
If New Zealand's appeal is rejected it means they will have just three paddlers in Beijing.
Fouhy has already qualified for the K1 1000m and Steven Ferguson and Mike Walker for the K2 1000m.
As Fouhy and Ferguson have already qualified, one of them can also contest the K1 500m if New Zealand selectors deem them worthy.
- NZPA
