New Zealand’s Steven Ferguson cites his illustrious father as his inspiration for canoeing at the Olympics but yesterday he failed to follow in his footsteps and paddled in last in the K1 500.
Ian Ferguson, who coaches his son, won three of four Olympic gold medals over the 500-meter distance.
In his heat on Tuesday, Steven Ferguson appeared to have a poor start and finished almost 27 seconds behind the South African winner Alan van Coller. He is also competing in the K2 1000.
In the first heat of the K1 500, Australia’s world champion Nathan Baggaley was again beaten by Eirik Veraas Larsen but told Reuters he was confident of beating the Norwegian in the final.
“Eirik is the kind of guy who goes just as quick in the heats as he does in the final so it was going to be tough,” he said. “I felt in control of that race... and I felt that I could have responded to it but there was no incentive to do that.”
Baggaley finished behind Larsen in the heat for the K1 1000 on Monday and on Tuesday he was beaten by over a second.
In the women’s K2 500, Germany’s Birgit Fischer got her campaign for a possible ninth Olympic gold medal underway in fine style, winning the second heat with Carolin Leonhardt by just under a length in the last race of the day. Joint favorites Hungary won the other heat comfortably.
Fischer is also contesting the K4 500 for an eighth gold and on Monday she qualified directly for the final.
The 42-year-old Fischer has also collected 27 world championships titles, when she appeared at the Moscow Games in 1980, she became the youngest gold Olympian in the history of the sport.
In Athens, she is in the same canoe as Carolin Leonhardt and yesterday they made the final in a time of 1min 39.588sec with China’s Xu Linbei and Zhong Hongyan in second spot.
“I feel as young as my years,” said Fischer. “It would be nice to win another gold but it’s not the most important thing in my life. “It is important for Carolin so I want us to win.”
Leonhardt is just 19 and wasn’t even born when Fischer made her Olympics debut in Moscow.
There was also success for another German, Andreas Dittmer, who qualified for the C1 500 final after qualifying directly on Monday for the C1 1000 final.
Dittmer won gold in the C1 1000 in Sydney.
The second day of the regatta was held in bouncy but fast conditions with several crews struggling to line up straight on the start line.
