If you need any indication of how seriously Steven Ferguson is taking his next Olympic campaign then consider the fact he sacrificed his great love, surf lifesaving, to concentrate on the flat water.
Ferguson doesn't want to just be in Beijing, he wants to bring home the kind
of souvenirs that can't be bought.
"Over the summer I decided to pass on all that. I did some some pool events as part of an international challenge where we beat the Aussies three-zip. It was really good to be part of that team but I told surf I couldn't be part of anything else this year because of my Olympic preparations."
Ferguson competed for New Zealand at the Sydney Olympics as a swimmer and has won world titles as a surf lifesaver.
"This will be my third Olympics, if I qualify, and I'm really gunning for that. For me it's not an 'if' but a 'when' so I've got to put in the hard yards now and I know I can. It's not just going there now, it's about where I come, so that's really exciting."
Ferguson's great rival and former world champion Ben Fouhy wasn't competing on Lake Pupuke, having recently had laser eye surgery.
"Without him being here in the K1 1000m opened up another opportunity for me," Ferguson, who has won 13 of the 14 national championship events he has entered, said. "For me that's exciting but not having him in the race does suck. You want to be racing against the best in the world."
Ferguson duly won the K1 100m yesterday, adding the K2 1000m with Mike Walker also.
Ferguson heads to the Australian nationals tomorrow where he will compete against some of the leading lights in world canoeing.
From there he will go to Europe for world cup campaigns in Hungary and France. He'll return to the Southern Hemisphere before journeying to Germany for the world championships at Duisburg in August. "It should be a good year. Everything has gone well and I'm injury free."
Ferguson will contest the K1 500m and the K2 1000m. Just who will partner him in the K2 is up for grabs. At these championships he is paddling with Walker and Troy Burbidge. An upcoming two-day K2 camp will finally determine his partner.
