Day One of racing at the ICF Canoe Sprint World Cup 2 in Duisburg Germany has started with a flurry with 57 countries and 740 athletes participating.
The most satisfying result of the day was the continued improved form of Teneale Hatton who finished 4th in both her heat and semi final. She was pleased to show consistent form in her bid for an NZOC nomination. Her B final is first on New Zealands racing agenda tomorrow and will no doubt be watched with anticipation by the NZ selectors.
Ben Fouhy raced well in his heat and was up against his old rival Norways Erik Veges Larson. The two raced closely with the Norwegian finishing 0.5 sec ahead of Fouhy in 1st and 2nd place. Bens semi final did not translate from his heat with Ben finishing 7th and relegating him to a C final on Saturday.
The mens K2 combo of Steven Ferguson & Darryl Fitzgerald continued their consistent performance in their Olympic event the 1000m finishing mid-pack in both their heat and their semi and pushing them through to the B final on Saturday.
However their non-Olympic event the 500m failed to progress from the semi-final despite the strong results they achieved at the first World Cup in Poland last weekend. Coach Ian Ferguson said he had trialled swapping the order of the boat in this race, but after these races he was swapping them back, preferring the stability and strength that the original format offers with Fitzgerald in the back and Ferguson in the front.
