N.Z. kayak team’s proud record

Press, 2 August 1983, Page 34

N.Z. kayak team’s proud record

NZPA Tampere, Finland New Zealand’s achievements at the world kayak championships held in Tampere, Finland, over the last four days, can only be described as remarkable. The team picked up one silver and one bronze medal, took a sixth, a seventh, and an eighth in the finals and reached the semi-finals in all their events, having to go into only one repechage. It took on the might and wealA of the Eastern bloc counnres and earned the

1 respect of all at the championships. When its competitors learned how the team’s i members had had to dig i deep into their own pockets i to finance their trip to the championships they could i not believe it — and just i how well the New Zeai landers had done in one of i the great world kayak com- ! petitions. East Germany’s Rudiger i Helm said that the New Zealand paddlers were good I but when he considered the : funds and resources; they i had, their achievements

were outstanding. Most of the other nations at the championships had team doctors, physiotherapists, masseurs, dietitians and psychiatrists as well as numerous coaches: New Zealand had one coach. From the 24 finals at the championships, New Zealand won two of the seven medals picked up by nonEastern block countries — the remaining 17 placings went to the Eastern bloc. New Zealand’s medal tally was the same as it was at last year’s championships but this time there was one

silver and one bronze. Last year it was two silvers and it was this that upset the New Zealanders. The coach, Ben Hutchings, said he was naturally delighted at how well the New Zealanders had done but he had to be honest and say he had expected and hoped for more: “We proved we are right up there with the rest and that we haven’t really slipped from last year, but then again we haven’t improved all that much,” he “It’s difficult, because al-

though one should be satisfied with what we achieved here, there is always the desire to do better and the disappointment that comes when you don’t.” The Games bronze medallist, Alan Thompson, said the achievements of the New Zealanders were fine but for him there was disappointment: “For the younger guys who haven’t had much experience it’s great but for us older ones it’s disappointing that we ourselves did not improve on last gear’s performance,” he sai«. “Last year I had the

silver and this year I wanted the gold and only got the bronze. That’s good but not good enough.” In yesterday’s finals lan Fergusson won the silver in the men’s KI 500 m as well as finishing eighth from a field of 26 in the KI 10,000 m. The K2 pairing of Thompson and Paul MacDonald finished seventh in their final of the K2 500 and the K2 10,000 m pairing of Peter Duncan and Grant Bramwell took an outstanding sixth from 27 starters.