Canoe Racing Results - Day 1

Canoe Racing New Zealand Inc. Racing Results – Day 1 Icf Canoe Sprint World Championship

20 August 2010

It was a hard day at the office for the mens 1000m programme with none of the selected boats managing to make A finals at the World Championships today. Conditions were less than favourable with a very strong and spoiling tail wind which proved testy for all competitors on the Malta Lake course. Ben Fouhy was first to race this morning in his heat of the Mens K1 1000m – this was Ben’s first international race since the Beijing Olympics. Given his limited build up and a recent wrist niggle his performance was respectable with a fourth place to advance to the semi finals.

Troy Burbidge and Steven Ferguson have been battling with their combination for a good percentage of their 2010 campaign although in recent weeks have started to make some real progress. They were very competitive across the first 750m of their K2 1000m heat, the tricky Poznan conditions proving to be a leveller across the later stages to hand them a fourth place and a semi final berth.

The last heat for the New Zealand team was the men’s K4 and despite an A-final performance at the third world cup in Szeged there was a very real chance of a first round exit given a suspect heat draw with their heat being ‘stacked’ with top 10 boats. This was raised at the team leaders meeting resulting in a redraw which actually didn’t prove to be much better. Despite all of this the boys raced very well reflective of the progress they have made under Andras Szabo in the 6 months they have been together to secure their deserved semi final place.

The standard of competition going from the World Cups to the World Championships is certainly a step up – by this point in time nations have trialed/tested and settled on priority combinations that we may not have had the chance to eyeball earlier in the year. In addition, as we suspected may occur, the ICF’s decision to replace the traditional 500m with the 200m, has bolstered the 1000m in particular with many ‘inbetweeners’ being forced into a situation where they have to choose between either the 1000m or the 200m which are significantly physiologically different. There is certainly a lot greater depth across all the disciplines in the 1000m distance and this, coupled with the increase in standard a year closer to the Olympic Games, has illustrated a paradigm change in canoe sprint. At the completion of the semi-final round, we were unable to secure any A-final spots with Fouhy 5th, Burbidge and Ferguson’s K2 4th, and the Men’s K4 6th all resigned to contesting the B-final. Perhaps of more significance was Adam Van Koeverden of Canada, who is a perpetual podium finisher also not making a A-final for the first time since 2003, finishing one place ahead of Fouhy in their K1 1000m semi. Also of note last year’s first and second placed finishers in the MK2 1000m didn’t make the A-final.

Tomorrow our Womens programme kicks off with Erin Taylor in the womens K1 500m at 10:13am (8:13pm NZT), Lisa Carrington and Teneale Hatton are next cab off the rank at 10:43 in the womens K2 500m. The three then combine with Jaimee Lovett in the women’s K4 500m. The girls have a solid day of racing ‘doubling up’ between the K1 and K4, and K2 and K4 which will provide the HP programme invaluable insight going into next years Olympic qualification. Full results are available on the official world champs website

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