Kayaking: Just rust, says Fouhy of choke in K1 heat

Olympic medallist Ben Fouhy is recognised as one of New Zealand's deepest-thinking athletes. Photo / Kenny Rodger

Former world kayaking champion Ben Fouhy's comeback to the racing world barely caused a ripple, though it did raise a few eyebrows.

Fouhy attended the Blue Lakes regatta near Rotorua last weekend, but not for long. He failed to race out his K1 1000m heat, finishing last and ensuring he would not progress to the semifinals.

High-performance manager Wayne Maher was one who was a little quizzical, given Fouhy's competitive reputation.

"I guess in any sport, if people line up to race they're there to race so it's not the attitude we'd encourage," Maher said.

"But in Ben's defence I don't think he'd actively go out and make a decision to do that in a race situation.

"He commits himself pretty much to his racing. There must have been a genuine reason why he went out and did that."

There was, in fact. Fouhy was feeling a few niggles on the way down the course and decided he was doing himself more harm than good.

"I've only really been back in the boat since November. I'm quite a way behind the rest of the guys," he said. "I went into the regatta with a few niggles, which is kind of inevitable when you're just getting back into it.

"Aerobically I was quite fit after doing the Ironman but musculoskeletally my strength was a bit compromised. I haven't got the conditioning in my tendons. I had swelling in my fingers and stuff like that.

"I was mindful of that. I wanted to get some good continuity in my training, not create problems I could not come back from."

Fouhy, recognised as one of New Zealand's deepest-thinking athletes, is fully committed to his comeback.

While he finds himself behind the likes of Steven Ferguson, Troy Burbidge and Mike Walker at present, he said he was more than capable of catching up to the times they were producing.

Blue Lakes was a case of rust, rather than any cause for discouragement.

That will be music to Maher's ears.

The men's programme is starting to look deep, with Beijing Olympian Walker also committing himself to a comeback.

"As good as Ben is, there is a cluster of guys there who are going pretty well. The sport's moved on in the last couple of years. Steve Ferguson is probably the standout paddler at the moment but he's got a few guys sniffing at his heels.

"There's Troy Burbidge, who was in the K2 over the winter, Liam O'Loughlin who was in the World Cup team at the start of the year, and Mike Walker. There were a few of us who thought he had retired as well, but he's back and going really quick.

"We're in a good place. There will be some strong competition for the K1 berth and the K2 berth."

Maher said his organisation was unhappy at the removal of the K500m events from the Olympic programme in favour of K200m. They would not be wasting any resources trying to build a short-sprint programme. "I wouldn't say it went down that well when it was announced at the world champs.

"We'll invite some people to come in for the second grand prix regatta in Australia in February. We want to use that as a dummy run to see what we've got and potentially see what we might send away to the World Cup and world champs next year.

"We've got designs on a K4 in the men, given that there is a bit of depth around. We want to try those things out."