Mahe ‘first’ into NZ Rio digs

New Zealand’s first Olympians have moved into the controversial athletes’ village in Rio with few concerns.

Defending single scull champion Mahe Drysdale was among the Kiwi vanguard to arrive and declared satisfaction with what he found.

This comes as the Australian Olympic Committee was reported to be moving their athletes into hotels while issues at their village headquarters, including leaking pipes, blocked toilets and showers, and flooding were fixed.

Drysdale said that apart from a few ‘‘finishing touches’’ he was content with facilities.

"All is good, few finishing touches still to be made but when you arrive at 5am on opening day you can’t expect it to be perfect,’’ Drysdale said in Instagram post.

Drysdale claimed to be the first athlete from any country to enter the village and he’d ‘‘taken ownership’’.

Drysdale, always forthright with his views, was looking forward to checking out the Olympic rowing facilities which have drawn criticism over water quality.

We are in Rio! Already taken ownership of the Village being the very first Athlete from any country to arrive and get through the gates! @zoe_stevenson @evemacfarlane were of course there by my side as usual. All is good, few finishing touches still to be made but when you arrive at 5am on opening day you can’t expect it to be perfect. Next stop the Rowing Venue. Exciting to think racing gets way in under 2 weeks. @nzolympics #roadtorio

Last week New Zealand chef de mission Rob Waddell said he was happy to have arrived early with his 10-person set-up team to iron out problems in the village.

They had discovered plumbing and electrical issues at the New Zealand apartment block but had worked hard to quickly remedy those as they set about providing a Kiwi flavour to their HQ.

Yesterday Waddell confirmed New Zealand athletes were taking residence after working hard to deliver the apartments on time.

‘‘We have had a focus on building strong relationships and we had decided to make sure we were first into the village as part of our games strategy.

‘‘We were disappointed the village wasn’t as ready as it might have been when we arrived and it hasn’t been easy. Our team has had to get stuck in to get the job done.

‘‘We’re pleased to say that thanks to the New Zealand team’s planning, strong relationships and a bit of hard work we’re ready for the first athletes to arrive today.

‘‘Our next phase of set up is to visit the venues as the final overlay is completed and to check out transport and other facilities.’’

Rowing and the New Zealand women’s football team were the first into the village.

The Games open on August 5 and that means a race against time in some areas.

Australian chef de mission Kitty Chiller said the problems at their apartment facility included ‘‘blocked toilets, leaking pipes and exposed wiring’’, with the first Australian athletes to arrive, on July 21, living in hotels due to the state of the village. Chiller said some village apartments had water running down the walls and ‘‘a strong smell of gas,’’ while stairwells were unlit and floors were in need of a massive clean.

Rio 2016 announced yesterday that there were some delays on village finishing and those athletes whose accommodation was not finished would be placed in the best available accommodation in other buildings.

The emotion and determination of Paul Macdonald turned into a driving factor of his backto-back Olympic gold medals with Ian Ferguson in the K2 500 canoe sprint in 1984 and 1988.

The duo proved to be an unstoppable force in the canoe racing world at the Los Angles and Seoul Olympics.

Ferguson won three gold medals in the former, then added a gold and a silver to his collection at the latter.

Mcdonald walked away with two golds in 1984 and a full set in 1988 – a gold, a silver and a bronze.

Ferguson had just claimed his first gold medal in the K1 500 when he joined Macdonald in their K2 500 final in 1984. The race started as normal as the pair got into their work, keeping a nose ahead of the pack out in lane nine.

‘‘We had a race plan,’’ Ferguson said. ‘‘Paul sits in the front and I call the instructions as we go. We always stick to the plan.’’

But with a gold medal on his mind, Ferguson said Macdonald changed things up.

‘‘Everything had gone perfectly to plan then coming up to the 250m I was thinking ‘Right I will count down 15 strokes and call the go’. Then I hear Paul, he just could not wait to get his gold medal, he just said ‘Go’ before the halfway, so I just had to go with him.’’

By the time the Kiwis were at the halfway point, they were a full boat length in front. And no-one threatened them in the last 250m as they claimed the win by threequarters of a boat length.

‘‘We were pretty confident we were going to win,’’ Ferguson said. ‘‘As soon as he said go we just jumped ahead and I knew nobody could come back at us.’’

While Ferguson celebrated his second gold medal, Macdonald was not able to join him until a couple of hours later.

‘‘We were both drug tested straight afterwards and because I had already raced one race and I had settled down and drunk lots of fluid, I flew through the job and I was having the most amazing time of my life,’’ he said.

‘‘Poor Paul was so nervous before the race . . . he went to the toilet three times before he went out there and then sweated like hell in the LA heat and he couldn’t do the job for a couple of hours.’’

The next day, they were back together as they claimed another gold in the K4 1000.

But 1988 in Seoul provided very different circumstances.

Ferguson and Macdonald were fuelled by the frustration of finishing second at the 1987 world championships when their rivals got away with a false start.

‘‘We ended up coming second so we wanted payback for that race because we deserved that world championship gold medal. We got our retribution and we won.’’

In 1988, Macdonald contested the K1 500 instead of Ferguson, but he did not have the same success.

‘‘Paul had just raced his singles and he had a really bad race,’’ Ferguson said.

‘‘He did not do quite what he should have done and he was on a bit of a downer.’’

Ferguson tried to console his mate before the K2 500 final started.

‘‘I was worried about him,’’ he said. ‘‘But when we took off he gave such a kick at the start I thought ‘Woah, he is angry, he is going for it’.’’

Their strong start set the tone, but the race came down to the wire.

Soviet Union pairing Igor Nagayev and Viktor Denisov and Hungary’s Attila Abraham and Ferenc Csipes pushed hard.

The Soviet Union pair took the lead with 150m to go.

But then Ferguson got into his work.

‘‘It is [Macdonald’s] job to take it out at the start and it is my job to bring it home. He did his major job, then it was up to me to be the strength at the finish.’’

The Kiwi boat pushed back into the lead by a nose and claimed the gold medal by the narrowest of margins.