ICF Canoe Sprint World Cup 1, Final Results

The last day of the ICF Canoe Sprint World Cup 1 dawned bright and sunny and provided yet another prevailing headwind for the athletes to paddle into. It was a much smaller day completion-wise for the New Zealand kayak team before they pack up and head to Duisburg in Germany, with just the two K2 crews racing their 500m A finals. Lisa Carrington and Erin Taylor attacked this race with controlled aggression and were rewarded with a 5th place in the A final. They looked strong through the race and were well pleased with the improvement they have made over the last 9 months. Coach Gordon Walker comments Nine months ago they were racing at the World Championships and finished in 9th place, so that is rapid progress in a short time period for a relatively new crew. Of course we all are under no illusion that as you get to the pointy end of any A final that progress becomes much harder. The second and final race for the New Zealand team was also another A final for the non Olympic MK2 500m. Steve Ferguson and Darryl Fitzgerald took some inspiration from the girls race as they lined up. They were fast out of the blocks and were in front at the 250m mark then tried to hang on. Steve said he really started to feel the burn 100m out as the other crews pulled in front. They were very happy with their 4th place especially only missing the podium by 0.8 seconds. The boats and gear have left with the coaches and support crew on the trek across Poland and Germany to Duisburg for the next World Cup regatta in a weeks time. The athletes fly out in the morning and are looking forward to the next bout of racing.