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Sunday, October 1
Racing finally starts after six-hour delay
Associated Press
PENRITH, Australia -- After all Angel Perez went through to
get into the Olympic kayak finals for the United States, a six-hour
delay for high winds was only a minor obstacle.
Perez and Peter Newton finished sixth in the men's two-man,
500-meter kayak race Sunday, and although the United States didn't
medal for the second consecutive Olympics, it was the best U.S.
performance in the event.
|  | | Strong head winds made competition difficult for athletes in the canoe and kayak events. |
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, 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 the races Sunday twice,
finally starting at 3 p.m. (midnight Saturday ET).
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
ceremony. 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.
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