Kayaking: Fouhy poised for return

Ben Fouhy. Photo / NZ Herald

The country's best kayaker is poised for a return to the sport.

Ben Fouhy has a proposal in front of Canoe Racing New Zealand that could be signed off this week.

Negotiations are said to be at a delicate stage and no details are forthcoming, but it would see Fouhy devising his own high-performance plan - something that would see him spending a large amount of time overseas.

It would make it a lot easier on a logistical level for Fouhy to race under the New Zealand flag at major events if he had the national kayaking body on board with the idea.

Yesterday, CRNZ chief executive Paula Kearns was reported as saying she had been in talks, instigated by Fouhy's camp, with the K1 1000m specialist.

She said she had a squad of 11 competing in Europe to concentrate on, but would be open to the idea of Fouhy returning to the sport.

The Herald understands she has seen the former Olympic silver medallist's plan to get back into the sport and has taken it to the board.

Intriguingly, Rob Nichol, better known as the face of players' associations in recent years, has emerged as a key figure in getting Fouhy back.

"I've provided some support, hopefully from a constructive point of view. I'm sure everyone wants to see him back and paddling again," Nichol said, declining to reveal further details.

Government sports funding agency Sparc has been working through the plan with Nichol and Fouhy and with CRNZ, but last week high-performance boss Martin Toomey declined to comment on the developments while they remained at a delicate stage.

Fouhy left the sport after falling out with national coach Ian Ferguson, which had made it next to impossible for the pair to work effectively together. The 31-year-old felt the process he had to go through to qualify for the world championships was unfair.

At the time Sparc was criticised for not doing more to keep one of its most talented athletes in the sport.

Given the history, it stands to reason that any high-performance plan for Fouhy would then look to use international expertise, rather than from within CRNZ's framework.

"There are some discussions and possibilities that are being looked at but out of respect for the people involved I don't want to get into any detail," Fouhy told the Herald yesterday.

If CRNZ accedes to the wishes of Fouhy and his supporters, the move to have an athlete operating virtually independent of the national sports organisation would not be without precedent.

Triathletes Bevan Docherty and Andrea Hewitt are both based overseas and dip in and out of the high-performance programmes based here.

Olympic gold medal shot putter Valerie Vili is another athlete who has been able to tailor her own high-performance plan without Athletics New Zealand being involved in every step of the process.

Fouhy is looking for the same latitude in formulating a plan to take him through to London 2012.

This year, the kayaking world champs are scheduled for Poznan, Poland, in August. It is unrealistic to expect Fouhy to be ready for any of the three world cup races that precede those champs.

New Zealand's squad have their first world cup meeting in Vichy, France, this weekend.