N.Z. four just fail to win canoeing medal

Press, 25 August 1986, Page 38

N.Z. four just fail to win canoeing medal

By

TOM BRIDGEMAN

NZPA staff correspondent Montreal A burst of speed over the last 200 metres was not enough to get the New Zealand k 4 1000 m team a medal at the world canoe championships. Although greatly improved on last year, the k 4 still finished fifth, just fractions of a second away from a place. , The four — Allan Thompson, lan Ferguson, Paul McDonald, Grant Bramwell — surged from the start alongside the fast Soviet crew but then dropped too far back from the leaders in the first half of the race. “We wanted to be a lot further up at the 500 m but the other crews were jusl £ flying,” said McDonald.

Hungary on the far side went to the lead early and held it to the finish, closely followed by East Germany and Poland. New Zealand looked to have just beaten the Soviet crew into fourth place but the official result had New Zealand fifth, a hundredth of a second behind the Soviets. “We’re happy we did better this year but not satisfied with the position,” said McDonald. At the world championships last year the k 4 finished a dismal last. Hungary won the race in 2m 58.295, while East Germany recorded 2:59.16. Poland was timed at 2:59.60, the Soviet Union at 3:01.25 and New Zealand at 3:01.26. Today Ferguso# and McDonald have to lift

themselves from yesterday’s placing to defend their world k2 500 m title. That is expected to be an even tighter race than yesterday. “Any seven of those in the race are going to be medallists,’ said Ferguson. “It’s going to be very tight.” Thompson also raced earlier yesterday in the kl 1000 m, finishing seventh, a one place improvement on last year.

The race was won in the fastest kl 1000 m time ever by Jeremy West, of Great Britain, who spent last summer training in New Zealand. West’s time was 3:37.60. Thompson said the tail wind would have given him about 3 seconds of that and the new paddles another 3 seconds.