Canoeists seek more golds

Press, 27 July 1988, Page 32

Canoeists seek more golds

The crack New Zealand canoe team headed off to Europe on Monday to prepare for the Seoul Olympics confident it can repeat its golden haul of four years ago.

It was on the waters of Lake Casitas at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics that the Kiwi canoeing contingent stunned the sporting world when it won four events, with lan Ferguson, Paul MacDonald (pictured above), Alan Thompson and Grant Bramwell winning eight individual gold medals between them.

The quartet are part of

this year’s seven-strong team for Seoul and ac-. cording to Ferguson there is no reason why the team can’t successfully defend its four titles at Seoul in September. “Sure, a lot has happened since 1984,” he says. “And this time the Russians and East Germans will be there. But we have all improved since 1984 and I think our record speaks for itself.”

He said last year Paul MacDonald won the world Kl-500m title, he and MacDonald won the K - 1000 m event and finished

a close second in the K - 500. “We should have won it. We had a bad start and blew it.”

According to MacDonald the pair have recorded their best training times this winter which should augur well for Seoul.

“We haven’t done any speed work yet, but our times over 2000 m, 5000 m and 10,000 m in training have been faster this year than ever before.”

Both Ferguson and MacDonald concede their toughest test will come before Seoul, when it is finally determined which

of them will contest the Kl-500m event. Ferguson is the defending Olympic champion over the distance while MacDonald is the current world champion. Under the Olympic charter a country can only have one entry per event, which means one of them will have to miss out on a certain medal. “It’s going to be tough for one of us, that’s for sure,” said Ferguson. He says the decision will probably be made following the regatta at Copenhagen at the end of August and that as with

most of their decisions in recent years, the pair will decide between themselves who is in the best form at the time to go for gold. The seven-strong New Zealand team which flew out on Monday is:— Bramwell, Ferguson, MacDonald, Thompson, Brent Clode, Stephen Richards and John MacDonald. Section manager Bill Garlick left for Belgium a few days ago to make arrangements for the team’s first training. camp at Hazewinkel, venue for the 1985 world champion- .