Greg Adlam: Canoe Racing NZ chair defends decision to send rookie C2 500m to Paris after infamous race

Canoe Racing New Zealand are defending a situation which has drawn the ire of some fans at the Paris Olympics.

The crew finished significantly later than all the other boats - coming in dead last by 45.31 seconds in the quarterfinal stage.

Canoe Racing NZ chair Greg Adlam says the team did what they could in a difficult boat.

"It's one thing for kayakers to get into a canoe boat and to paddle it, it's another one to actually lay down power on the course. That's the phase we're at now."

LISTEN ABOVE

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Together do for Sea Allen coming up eighteen past five hours.
We've been discussing on the show. The Kiwi canoeists at
the Olympics have caused quite a stir with their performance,
which was pretty bad. They finished about a minute later
than all the other boats in the C two five
hundred overnight because neither of them are actually any good
at the event, they were so far behind the pack.
Our commentator Malcolm Jordan thought they dropped out of the race.

(00:21):
My apologies. They didn't pull out. They are now crossing
the line now. They were so far behind the action
I lost complete sight of them. Greg Adlam is the
chair of Canoe Racing New Zealand with us now, Hey Greg, Hi.

Speaker 2 (00:36):
How are you? Oh Greg? You sound deflated, Not at all. No,
the water sports have been fantastic and the kayakers are
going fantastically well.

Speaker 1 (00:46):
Yeah, well they are right now, do you reckon? People
are being rough a little rough on these two guys.
Given they're not actually there to canoe, they're there to kayak,
and they just have to canoe in order to be
able to kayak.

Speaker 2 (00:56):
It's probably an understanding of the selection process. Maybe that
may help outline why they paging the way they are,
and that's about when we're trying to qualify for Olympics.
In the year prior to Olympics, your World Championships, we're
trying to qualify as many seats as we can at those,
which is for the men there is six kayaking men,

(01:18):
six kayaking women six but similarly, if we were had
a seaboat program, it'd be six in each of those.
As a result of World Championships last year, we qualified
four women and zero men. So you come back to
Oceani yourragana and we qualified two more women out of
that to get our six, and we're able to qualify
three men. But we're also able to do which we did,

(01:39):
which was to qualify in the canoe discipline the two
and in the kayak discipline two and we're able to
under the rules, put those two together to make up
our K four for the men, which we did as
the K four men was seven fastest in the world
last year. But what we must do is we've got
to line up in the K boat and the seaboat.

(01:59):
And so what these two lads have done is a
tremendously good job at a very very difficult boat. Tremendously tippy.
I've tried one once and all I did was fell
out of it. So these guys have done a great
job in skillect position and being able to paddle that
boat up the course and acknowledging what your commentator said.
The commentator on the television outlined it pretty well. They said,

(02:21):
you know, it's one thing for kayakers to get into
a canoe boat and to paddle it, but it's another
one to actually lay down power to get it up
to the course. And that's the phase that we're out now,
and we're looking for these boat and it's disciplined to
be something for us for New Zealand and canar racing
and potentially not an next Olympic cycle maybe, but certainly

(02:42):
the one after for Brisbane. So it's a start and
it's a really very strong start and I think what
they're doing is tremendous. They are really displaying a new
avenue of sport for New Zealand and atams nationally. But
it hasn't really been available to this some time.

Speaker 1 (02:57):
So there's been a little bit of criticism of you
guys for using this technicality in the loophole to get in.
Is that fair?

Speaker 2 (03:04):
The the rules are there, and we've we acknowledged and
as has and has been there for some time. And
we're not the first country to take this path, and
depending on what the International CANU Federation, so we may
be the last. I don't I don't know, but at
the moment, the rules are there and we've used those

(03:25):
rules to get out get our K four through.

Speaker 1 (03:27):
Now the lad's okay, because I mean they are copying it, right,
Have you checked in on them?

Speaker 2 (03:33):
Yeah, yep, yep. They're in really good spirit, actually really
good spirit. And I think you saw that on the
start line. You know, Max is a is a pretty
a pretty how do you the best describe it isn't
is a great lad and he's very happy to show
a very happy emotion, which was good. And Grant's similar
behind them and pretty pretty stoked to be able to

(03:54):
do this. And Grant is also as already said, you know,
post of them, if he'd like to be able to
take this around the true to demonstrate to other people
how cool is support it is?

Speaker 1 (04:03):
Yeah, well how about making other people sit on that
boat and see how it goes for them? Hey? Greg,
thank you very much. Greg Adlam Canoe Racing New Zealand
board chair see nothing to worry about is all.

Speaker 2 (04:13):
Part of the plan for more from Hither Duplessy Allen Drive.
Listen live to news talks it'd be from four pm weekdays,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.