Olympics: Whitewater canoeing course looks a winner

By PETER JESSUP

SYDNEY - It is an irony that New Zealand has no whitewater kayaking or canoeing competitors at the 2000 Olympics, given that many of the world's top competitors make the country their part-time home.

The Europeans are best at the sport but fly Down Under during the winter, when their rivers and lakes are frozen over, to take advantage of great conditions, ease of access and the variety of conditions New Zealand has to offer.

Many of the paddle-sport competitors have come to the Sydney Olympics from New Zealand.

In Sydney, the administrators of the two sports are predicting that Australians are about to make a huge leap into world contention thanks to the artificial whitewater course constructed for the Games.

The 320m course forms a giant u-turn, dropping 5.5m. Five huge pumps are used to churn out 14 cu m of water a second at the start-line.

Rocks taken from the quarry that adjoins the site are laid in a channel ranging from 5m to 8m wide and hollow steel cylinders are locked into the concrete base to disrupt the flow.

These are moveable so race organisers can set a different track each day.

There will be 20 to 25 gates - the poles that hang from suspended wires over the course - six having to be negotiated upstream designated by red colouring, and the rest green.

The best competitors have been within 2s of one another in practice this week.

The beauty of the man-made park is the short time between repeat runs. The craft spill out into a pool that feeds on to a big conveyor belt that takes them back up to the start.

The course has been open for nine months. The Australian kayak championships were held there, and it has been open to the public.

The Penrith council, NSW Government and Olympic and international governing bodies of canoeing which shared the cost of the $6.5 million construction are not saying how the finances are going, but crowds have been good and the smiles from the Aussies tell you they know they are on a financial winner once the Games are over.

The kayak sports promise to be among the most cleverly covered by television. There are 16 fixed cameras around the course, from water to blimp level, two huge booms and one on a flying fox that will swing down beside the paddlers.

Organisers do not believe the strong winds that threaten the smooth running of the rowing events will cause problems with the paddle-sports.

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