PADDLE FEAT
Up to 10 competitors including K4 men’s and women’s crews may be at Olympics
Canoe Racing New Zealand are poised to send their biggest ever Olympic team to Paris.
After successfully navigating the Oceania qualifying regatta in Sydney last weekend, CRNZ could have as many as 10 athletes at the 2024 Games.
It’s an exciting prospect. As well as a potential ‘stop the nation’ scenario of Dame Lisa Carrington and Aimee Fisher facing off in the K1 500m — which would be massive, given their pedigree — there will be two women’s K2 crews, along with the K4 quartet that took world championship gold in spectacular fashion last year.
Besides the six women — the maximum allowed for any nation — there may be up to four men.
Along with the K2, that would allow a male K4 crew, for the first time since 1992 in Barcelona, which was the final chapter of the glorious Ian Ferguson-Paul MacDonald era.
The previous highest kayaking contingent at a single Games was seven (1988 and 1992), with six in Rio and Tokyo.
“We have never before had men’s and women’s K4s racing at the same Games, so if we can pull that off, we would be really excited,” CRNZ high performance boss Nathan Luce told the Herald.
Six female athletes would continue the remarkable evolution on that side of the sport, driven by Carrington. CRNZ didn’t send their first female Olympian until 2008 (Erin Taylor) but they have been the dominant gender since.
The Sydney results need to be ratified by the International Canoe Federation, then selection has to be approved by the New Zealand Olympic Committee. In theory, New Zealand qualified three boats and six athletes in Sydney.
Aimee Fisher and Danielle McKenzie ensured a second women’s K2 500m entry, while 2020 Tokyo Olympians Max Brown and Kurtis Imrie punched the ticket for a men’s K2 boat.
The third was a little more opaque, as James Munro and Kacey Ngataki finished first in the two-person canoe (C2 500m). Along with that boat, it potentially means four male athletes in the French capital, opening up other selection options.
Luce emphasised the personnel filling those spots won’t be confirmed until the first week of March, with CRNZ to hold trials across four classes: the women’s and men’s K2 and K4 500m.
Competition is particularly deep among the males. Brown and Imrie finished an impressive fifth in Tokyo but aren’t assured of spots, with at least eight men expected to contend for seats on the two boats.
“With the athletes we have, [we are] pretty confident we can make a good impression [in both events],” said Luce. “They have made a big jump in the last few years [and] just keep on getting better.”
But the headline-grabbing event will undoubtedly be the women’s K1 500m, with the final scheduled for the last Saturday of the Games.
Luce was reluctant to look too far ahead but admitted the idea of Carrington and Fisher in the same event would capture the imagination, especially given Carrington is a fivetime Olympic champion and Fisher would also be considered a podium contender.
“It is a great opportunity for New Zealand to have two of the best paddlers in the world in the field.
“To have that opportunity is amazing for us, because in the past Olympic Games, prior to Tokyo, we could only have one entrant [per event].
“Now we can have two, so it [would be] exciting to see both of them line up against the rest of the world,” Luce said.