Twin Turbo Charging

"We weren't getting out the maximum power with me in the front," says Steven Ferguson of his K2 1000m pairing with Mike Walker. "I always knew that if we could make it work with me in the back - we would be faster."

In July, they finally made it work. Ferguson and Walker have always had "a bit of a lean" in the kayak, which is why Ferguson had always sat in the front. But that's all sorted out. Two years after they first paired up, they have settled into their ideal positions.

"We can keep the boat speed a lot higher. I can work a lot harder in the back," Ferguson explains.

The process was assisted by scientific analysis technology, capturing technique details not visible by eye. Unfortunately, though, making the change wasn't just a matter of hopping into the opposite seats. Ferguson is a little heavier (91kg to Walker's 88kg) and has longer arms, so switching positions meant they also needed a new – larger – kayak. That was only delivered to their Townsville, Australia base in mid-July.

The squad has been honing their form in Townsville since the start of July. They're working under the expert eyes of 1984/1988 Olympic gold medallists Ian Ferguson and Paul MacDonald. The Townsville venue is a dammed river. It's not a heavily used area for paddling, perhaps due to the apparent presence of saltwater crocodiles. "We haven't seen any," Ferguson laughs.

The squad heads as one to Beijing on 9 August, giving enough time to adjust to time zones – but close enough to their competition days to minimise time in the Olympic hype.

Steven Ferguson wins the Open Mens K1 500 Final. Kayaking Nationals, Lake Pupuke, Auckland, March 2008.
Credit: Renee McKay, Photosport.

As well as the K2 1000m, Ferguson will contest the K1 500m. Ben Fouhy, Athens silver medallist and former World Champion, will line up for the K1 1000m. Erin Taylor will race the K1 500m. At 21 she's the first woman to be representing New Zealand in flat-water Olympic Games kayaking.

Medals? In kayaking, the Olympics is everything so fields will be blazingly tough. Even so, the podium is a realistic goal for all of the squad. That was demonstrated by their solid showing in 2008 European World Cup regattas.

At their final European regatta in Poland in July, Ferguson was 4th in the K1 500m; his 1min 36.5sec was within a second of winner Adam Van Koeverden of Canada. The top three all slipped under the existing world record.

That means Ferguson is now fourth on the list of the world's fastest K1 500m paddlers.

At Poland, Ferguson and Walker took third in the K2 1000m. So did Erin Taylor in the women's K1 500m, as she sliced almost two seconds off her personal best time. Fouhy showed a return to form after illness, 5th in the K1 1000m.

"We hit our straps in Poland – and we hadn't even done any lactate work at that stage. The boat's going extremely well at the moment," Ferguson assesses.

It's an interesting sport, flat-water kayaking, a continual balancing of form and force. Go too hard and technique suffers – so paradoxically you go slower. The kayaks are built for out-and-out speed. They're ridiculously unstable, so unforgiving of the slightest technical fault.

How tippy? Put an inexperienced person in a K1 on the water and they will end up very wet – within a couple of seconds.

There are differences in paddling in the K1 and K2, Ferguson says. "I use a bigger paddle in the 500m. My technique is similar. But [in the 500m] you let the paddle have a bit more time in the air so the boat can run in the water."

The K1 500m is "full tack" all the way, he says. "It's as fast as you can go. It's a very high paced race." By contrast, in the 1000m you can't just go from the gun; the race is more like the 1500m on the athletics track, compared to the full-on effort of the 400m.

"We have a race strategy [for the K2 1000m]. At the same time you can't necessarily just sit at one speed. You need to be ready to stay with the race."

As the more experienced paddler, Ferguson decides the tactic. "I'll call 'hup!' and we'll take off and have a crack. You see it in a race. We'll be a length behind then suddenly we're even. It all comes down to the timing of the lift," and then, he adds, "finishing like an Olympian."

Like Fouhy, Ferguson's competed at the Games venue. It's good to have been there, he says. "It helps you mentally go through all the steps." It's also good to be aware of the small details, for example that the markings will differ from World Cup regattas.

Beijing's "cans" to mark the distance left to race are right off to the side of the course. "You can almost go past the cans without noticing them," Ferguson says.

Both Ian Ferguson and MacDonald will go to Beijing with the paddlers. MacDonald only joined the squad a few months back and it's proved a real boost. "Having two Olympic champions is inspirational. They're giving us good feedback. It's pretty amazing," Ferguson says.

Steven Ferguson first represented New Zealand at an Olympic Games as a swimmer at Sydney 2000. He changed codes for Athens, joining Ben Fouhy in the K2 1000, and making the finals. Beijing will be Mike Walker's first Olympic Games, though he went to Athens as a spectator.

Coaches Ian Ferguson and Paul MacDonald first teamed up in 1980. Between them they won seven Olympic Gold medals. At the 1984 Olympics they won gold in the K2 500 and K4 1000, with Ferguson also winning the K1 500.

Updated | 31 Oct 2008.

Skip page tools.

• Go to top