N.Z. first for Geoff Walker

Press, 16 April 1980, Page 40

N.Z. first for Geoff Walker

Geoff Walker, a strapping 27-year-old engineer, has made New Zealand history with his selection to partner Alan Thompson in a pairs kayak. Walker, who nearly two years ago turned his back on his engineering degree —his main job since then has been as a ref use collector — is the first New Zealand sportsman to ■ represent his coiintry in three different sports . He first competed in swimming, and toured Canada in 1969. Then he turned from chlorinated water to the surf, and .has fashioned : a .glittering career with. his ' all-round', proficiency in, swimming, surf’ski and malihu board events. That versatility has won Walker New Zealand representation in surf lifesaving as well —most recently in the season just finished. Only a season ago, he tiirned his ski paddling ability to kayaks and in his first season of canoeing was the star of the national championships, winning three of the four titles he- contested. -One of his times would have ranked Walker tenth in the world championships a little earlier. He did not meet with the same startling results this year, his Moscow team-mates, lan Fergusson and Alan Thompson —

two others with outstanding surf backgrounds — shading him on each occasion. But consistent with their frequently-stated policy, the Olympic selectors took earlier performances into account, in this case, the mastery of Walker in the 1979 championships. Walker was modestly off-hand about his selection in an historic third sport. “They are rather related, after all,” he observed from Auckland, where he is spending two months in training. < But oh the actual selection and the. prosect of competing at the Olympics Walker was rather more ecstatic. “It’s great, really good. You sort of sit there and are never really certain of being in. “Now, hopefully, these Games will go on. It is very hard, when you are a sportsman, to make your mind up, to be dispassionate over something like these particular politics. So without looking at those aspects, I’m thrilled to be going; I would be very disappointed if we did not. “I had these Games in mind two years ago, when I gave regular work and employment away, and it would be terribly disappointing to miss them because of a boycott now.”