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Finishing strong U.S. pair paddles to sixth in kayak finalLatest: Sunday October 08, 2000 09:15 PM
PENRITH, Australia (CNNSI.com) - Angel Perez and Peter Newton teamed to finish sixth in the men's two-man, 500-meter kayak event on Sunday. Perez and Newton were delayed by six hours prior to the finals due to high winds, and even though the U.S. pair did not medal, it was the best U.S. performance in the event. It's the second time in as many days that Perez and Newton were part of a American-best boat. The K-4 was sixth on Saturday (Friday night EDT), the first time the United States has reached that final. "It was a wonderful experience," said Perez, who competed for his native Cuba in 1992. "I hope to do it again at the next Olympics." Also Sunday, Petar Merkov of Bulgaria won his second silver medal in Sydney despite reports he tested positive for a banned substance earlier this summer. "If it's true, then it's wrong he's here now," said Norway's Knut Holmann, who beat Merkov in the 500-meter K-1 for his third career gold. "It's a lot of people who should be doing something about it, although obviously they haven't done what they should." Wind gusts of nearly 50 mph forced officials to do what they felt they had to by delaying the start of Sunday's races twice, finally starting at 3 p.m. (midnight Saturday EDT). Officials said they had been prepared to try to start the races hourly if the winds had not decreased, and had contingency plans that included bringing in lights for night racing, trying again Monday -- a day after the Games' official close -- or even calling it off.
How bad was it? Finish-line markers swayed, whitecaps rippled and a motorboat almost went under. Cold, hungry paddlers waited nervously, some fearing they were going to miss flights, others fretting about missing the Closing Ceremonies. About 100 impatient fans stripped their clothes and dove into the choppy waters to swim across the lanes. Depending on how bad the weather was when their race started, each kayaker seemed to have a different opinion about the delays. "I paddled in worse this morning," said Perez, who warmed up in vein three times. "We got big whitecaps and Peter got a lot of splashes in his face." Said Holmann, who went through five warmups: "I think probably they could've started at 9 (a.m., the originally scheduled time) because I think it was almost like it was now. If we had raced at noon, that would've been the worst -- it was like hell by then." Perez learned about patience during a six-month legal battle to become eligible to compete as an American. He competed for Cuba in the 1992 Olympics, defected in '93 and became a U.S. citizen last year. Olympic rules require three years of citizenship, but Perez got around it by convincing arbitrators that he gave up his Cuban citizenship when he defected seven years ago. Perez, of Miami, and Newton, of Seattle, got off to a horrible start and were eighth after 250 meters. They were still there with 50 meters to go, then made a huge push to catch Italy by .018 seconds and Bulgaria by little more than a second. "I think both of us knew we had to pick it up and give it our all at the end," Newton said. "The race was almost over and we felt like we still had something left," Perez said. The U.S. tandem was 5.562 seconds behind the gold-winning Hungarians. Australia won silver and Germany bronze. Perez and Newton finished fourth in the K-2 500 at the 1998 world championships. They had a down year in '99 mainly because both were sick. While they were ill, Stein Jorgensen and John Mooney qualified the United States for the Olympics, and Perez and Newton won a raceoff last week to claim the entry. The four are partners in the K-4. Birgit Fischer continued to make history, winning the women's pairs for her second title in Sydney and seventh of her career. That makes her the most successful German Olympian ever and extends her canoe-kayak record medal collection to 10. Fischer, who competed at several Olympics under the married surname Schmidt but has since divorced, has won at least one gold medal at all five Olympics she's competed, including the last four. Her first gold came in Moscow in 1980.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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