Kayaking: Paddling through turbulent waters

Ben Fouhy came fourth in his K1 1000m race at the Beijing Olympics in 2008. Photo / Kenny Rodger

Canoe Racing New Zealand and Sparc deserve credit for taking hard decisions to improve a sport that was punching below its weight.

That's the view of Rob Nichol, head of the NZ Athletes Federation and the person who got Ben Fouhy back into the sport. Olympic champions of the 1980s are being squeezed out. Coaching contracts for Ian Ferguson and Paul MacDonald have not been renewed and Alan Thompson has resigned from the board.

One catalyst for change was Fouhy walking away from the sport in March. "The best kayaker was gone," says Nichol. "The two organisations got together and did what they had to to get him back in the boat. They then decided to do a thorough review of canoe racing's high performance programme."

The upshot of that review was to move on from the era of Ferguson, a kayak legend who has been a dominant figure in the sport for two decades. Their response has included allegations of a conspiracy and criticism of the Sports Minister Murray McCully, Sparc, CRNZ, Fouhy and new appointees to the high performance programme.

But, says Nichol, "from a governance and management perspective, I think [it was] the right thing".

"Only those who have fallen by the wayside through that process are levelling criticism. It's so easy to throw stones but they [CRNZ] have a brand new chairman and a brand new CEO - they don't have a personal agenda. They want as robust a high-performance programme as possible."

The decision follows a poor world championships in August where results ranged from ninth to 22nd well shy of the Beijing Olympics where Fouhy (K1 1000) was fourth, Steven Ferguson (K1 500) eighth and Mike Walker and Ferguson (K2 1000) sixth.

Sparc chief executive Peter Miskimmin countered criticism by pointing out that there has been "major issues" with canoeing including financial (it needed a $250,000 bailout in 2007). Miskimmin says Sparc has tremendous respect for the contribution Ferguson and MacDonald have made to canoe racing but hints that they had become part of the problem. "National sports organisations have to make decisions in the best interests of the athletes and the sport, not in the interests of personalities within the sport."

One paddler puts it this way: "They were amazing athletes but that doesn't make them amazing coaches."

Fouhy apart, kayakers have not won a world or Olympic medal in the past 22 years.

McCully told the Weekend Herald he fully supports Sparc. "It has been blindingly obvious that there has been troubles inside Canoe Racing New Zealand which is why Sparc has been working for some time towards resolving those issues.

"It's a sport in which we unquestionably have talent. It's on the list of sports where we can consistently be among the best in the world provided we give ourselves the facilities, the coaches and the governance arrangements and I think Sparc's effort to get all of those things in place is to be commended and supported.

"Sparc and CRNZ had done their own reviews and as a consequence have done the follow up. That's exactly how the process is supposed to work."

Suggestions of a conspiracy are "fantasy", McCully says.

"The suggestion that I have directed changes is sheer nonsense. Sparc have been trying to assist Canoe Racing New Zealand long before I had any involvement."

And the minister says his role regarding Fouhy is straightforward.

"I met him after he decided he was pulling the pin. I just said to him, 'look, we are going to put some more money into high performance sport, we are going to put some of it into kayaking and the last thing I want to see happen is the guys who can win Olympic medals depart, so please try to stick around'."

When Nichol first laid eyes on Fouhy, he was a newly-minted ex-kayaker. "I thought it a real shame that someone who had performed so well and was clearly still a medal prospect was choosing to walk away.

"It had always been clear that he was a guy with a work ethic and a desire to win and succeed for New Zealand that was second to none."

His intention wasn't to persuade Fouhy to get back in the boat, he says, but to "have a chat and offer support".

"What got me was ... here was a guy who wanted to be an athlete. If he wasn't going to be a kayaker he was going to do Ironman [triathlon]. He wanted to be the best athlete he could be."

It was clear that kayaking was the sport in which Fouhy could achieve most.

"I felt he still had a fair bit to give and, listening to him, I realised he hadn't performed to his potential for five or six years."

Even when athletes are physically and technically where they need to be their performance can be compromised by distractions, Nichol says. "A lot are driven, they don't like compromise, they don't like politics and if they think their integrity has been questioned, it plays on their minds and they become disenchanted and their performance is not optimised.

"I found a guy who was honest and genuine who was just struggling with all sorts of stuff to the point where he no longer could enjoy his kayaking and I suspect that had been the case for a while."

There were enough indicators that CRNZ had issues. It had been insolvent, was on its third chief executive in as many years and there was disharmony over selection criteria.

"Ben had made a call and in my view he made a call based on integrity. He expressed it to me like this: 'Taxpayers are funding kayaking with a lot of money for results and ironically I'm the one who has produced results ... so a lot of that funding has come off the back of my results but I feel I can't keep going because I almost feel as though the taxpayer is being ripped off because I'm not performing as well as I can and I look at the environment and I don't think it's going to produce what taxpayers are investing in'."

Fouhy was brought back with a deal which sees him separately funded by Sparc and guaranteed entry to World Cup regattas where he can be challenged for the KI 1000 berth for the World Championship. Coaching and administrative changes occurring now have not come simply because of the differences between its star of the modern era and its old stars. Reform was under way before Fouhy walked.

In 2009 CRNZ looked to rowing for a high performance manager (Wayne Maher, a national rowing coach). It may be significant that Maher is from a sport which appears to have what kayaking hasn't a professional, tight, happy, co-operative group. Both sports require extraordinary commitment to excel.

Each Sunday Mike Walker leaves his wife and family and drives from his home in Tauranga to train in Auckland, returning on Thursday evenings. Being away so much from his young family eats him up but he knows the sacrifice is necessary if he hopes to fulfil his potential. But success requires stability too and there has been precious little of that in kayaking of late.

The paddlers are caught in the middle of the war between the old and new guard.

Nichol says Ferguson, MacDonald and Thompson provided New Zealand with some of its proudest Olympic moments and are hugely respected. It would be a shame if they now chose to be a thorn in the side of the sport.

More rough water may lie ahead MacDonald has sent a personal grievance to the national body.


DAYS IN THE SUN

Ferguson and MacDonald as competitors

* Olympics
Ferguson: 4 gold 1 silver
MacDonald: 3 gold 1 silver 1 bronze

* World Championships
Ferguson: 1 gold, 3 silver
MacDonald: 3 gold, 2 silver

Ferguson and MacDonald as coaches

* Ferguson has been a coach for much of the past two decades. In that time only Ben Fouhy (who has fallen out with the pair) has won an Olympic or World Championship medal.

Ben Fouhy - career highlights
(Olympic silver, World championship gold and bronze)
2003 World Champion K1 1000
2004 Olympic silver K1 1000
2005 Bronze World Marathon championships
2006 Bronze World Championships K1 1000
Set world's fastest time at World Cup regatta
2008 Olympics 4th K1 1000