15 Aug 2009

Longer races continue to suit NZ team at kayak worlds

8:51 am on 15 August 2009

The New Zealand kayak team continues to do well in the longer events at the World Championships in Canada.

Erin Taylor and Steve Ferguson both made their respective K1 1000 A finals, with Ferguson also through to the 500 metre A final.

Taylor made the B final for the 500 metres.

Both the men's and women's K2 1000 made their A finals while both the men's and women's crews made the K2 500 B finals.

High performance manager Wayne Maher's pleased with the team's performance, focused as it is on the longer Olympic events, but he admits there's work to do on the shorter races.

And he's bemused by the sudden change to the Olympic programme, dropping the men's 500 metres in favour of the 200 and bringing in the 500 for the women - apparently to boost media appeal.

Maher says the men's 500 races, which are often separated by just half a second between the top five finishers in the semi-finals, are already very exciting.