Kayaking: Time for neglected sport to paddle own canoe

The kayaking nationals are taking place at Blue Lake, Rotorua, this weekend - not that you would necessarily know it.

The sport's tenuous toehold in the national sporting consciousness is something Max Walker, father of Olympian Mike Walker, is desperate to do something about, though he concedes the sport is its own worst enemy.

"We definitely don't push our case enough," Walker says. "We never leveraged properly off the success of Ian Ferguson, Paul MacDonald and Alan Thompson and we are still a fringe sport because of it."

Sparc, too, must take its share of the blame, Walker believes.

"In creating that club of nine 'targeted' sports, it has had a negative effect on the sports below that.

"It's proven a bit of a disincentive."

The nine targeted sports are team staples rugby, cricket and netball, while sailing, rowing, swimming, triathlon, athletics and cycling are the six Olympic sports targeted for high-performance funding.

Walker took mild exception to a story in these pages last week that stated rowing put in a "supreme performance relative to every other Kiwi sport at the Olympic Games".

He said that with a fourth (Ben Fouhy, K1 1000m), a fifth (Walker and Steven Ferguson, K2 1000m, amended from sixth) and an eighth, the kayakers gave more for their buck than any other Kiwi team at the Games.

Kayaking received $2.22m in the four years leading into Beijing, compared with $10.05m for rowing, $9.9m for cycling, $8.59m for sailing, $4.92m for triathlon and $4.31m, athletics.

Three sports that didn't gather any medals, swimming ($6.88m), hockey ($5.14m) and basketball ($4.43m) all received more Government cash than kayaking, a sport that has been medal-rich for New Zealand since 1984.

The nationals are particularly under the radar. A newsletter posted on the New Zealand canoe racing website by national director of coaching Mark Watson demonstrates the scale of goodwill required to make a sport that does not receive large amounts of government largesse work.

"I still need some K1's for the Australian team," Watson writes. "Could you ask around your athletes to see if they have any extra kayaks that could be brought to the regatta for the Australians to use? Also require one K2.

"Help is required in setting up the official's tent on Friday afternoon. If you are able to be at Blue Lake between 2-4pm your help would be most appreciated."