Steven Ferguson and Darryl Fitzgerald in the men's kayak double are through to the final of their event at the London Olympics. Source / Brett Phibbs NZ Herald
It's familiar territory for a Ferguson to be in but will be new for Darryl Fitzgerald after he combined with Steven Ferguson to qualify for Wednesday night's final of the K2 1000m.
Ferguson, son of four-time Olympic champion Ian Ferguson who is also their coach, competed at the 2000 Olympics
as a swimmer but has contested three finals in canoe sprint racing before.
His best was sixth in the K2 1000m with Mike Walker in Beijing four years ago but, while Ferguson and Fitzgerald believe they have enough speed to medal in London, it would take something special to get on the podium this time with some classy crews from the likes of Germany and Hungary.
The pair will also hope the wind that played such a big hand during the rowing regatta at Eton Dorney won't influence the canoe sprint racing finals. Ferguson and Fitzgerald finished third in their semifinal tonight (NZT) and will claim one of the two outside lanes, meaning they will be shifted to one of the worst lanes if the wind blows.
"We buttoned off at the end there,'' the 32-year-old Ferguson said. "We weren't going to get the top spot [in the semifinal] so there was no point in making it hard for yourself.
"We didn't have a doubt in our minds we weren't going to get through. We have been training pretty hard to follow a race plan to be consistent and work towards something rather than just going out there and not knowing what to expect.
