Canoeing: Low key start for NZ paddlers

Lisa Carrington (pictured) and her partner Erin Taylor are through to tomorrow's K2 1000 final. Photo / Getty Images.

Only one New Zealand crew made it through to the A final on the first day of racing at the canoe sprint world cup in Poland overnight.

Lisa Carrington and her partner Erin Taylor are through to tomorrow's K2 1000 final - but no one is panicking about the lack of success.

That's because the Kiwi crews are in the middle of preparations for the London Olympics, and are using the waters in Poznan as a place for fine-tuning.

They have also been absent from the European racing scene for nine months, while many of their opponents are in peak form and still battling for places at August's Games.

Those factors combined to ensure there was little surprise when Kiwi boat after Kiwi boat succeeded only in making B finals.

The one exception was perhaps a surprise, considering Carrington and Taylor prefer the shorter K2 500, and coach Gordon Walker was underwhelmed by the result.

"Today was just another day of training, really," he said. "There was nothing we saw today that was any different to what they've done in training. It was good to see what everyone else is doing, though."

The other real bright spot on the opening day was the performance of Teneale Hatton in the K1 500. Hatton won her heat with a strong race to put herself in a good position for the semifinal but found the going tougher, with her 3rd place relegating her to the B final.

However, qualifying for the B final was a good result for Hatton and is an improvement on her world championship result where she won the C final.

It also gives her a chance to press for Olympic selection. Hatton currently doesn't meet NZOC criteria for the Games, requiring an athlete to be in the top 16, but if she finishes in the top five of the B final it would put her inside the mark.

The Kiwi men experienced similar fates, with Ben Fouhy reaching the B final in the K1 1000 and being eliminated from the K1 500.

Steven Ferguson and Darryl Fitzgerald were happy enough with their day despite failing to make the A final of their favoured event the K2 1000.

The pair led the first 250m of the race before dropping back, giving a stark reminder of the differing European race style - a slower start before powering into the longer distance.

"We've been having great starts, and it's just about out rhythm in the boat and making sure we get better at that," Ferguson said. "The more time we spend in the boat, we're going to feel better and better.

"We didn't get the greatest result but it's just practise and making sure we tick every box so we know what we're doing come race day at the Olympics."

The duo will now race in tomorrow's B final, and will continue making adjustments to find out the most fruitful approach.

"It's all about trying to figure out what works best for us at the moment and make sure the next time we race we do it better," Ferguson said. "There's a lot of people that are going to the Olympics that haven't made the final either. So, for us, it will be a good opportunity to race them.

"It's not the end of the world yet - the end of the world comes in a couple of months in London. We've just got to focus on all the process and figuring out new things and making sure we hit every nail on the head, so come race day in London we're going really fast."