Smith Confident Of K4 Spot

Illawarra Mercury

Thursday May 15, 2008

By CHRIS ROOTS

WARILLA paddler David Smith is confident his Beijing dream will not end as a result of the Court of Arbitration for Sport decision to set aside the selected Olympic kayak squad yesterday.

The 21-year-old was one of the first paddlers to win his spot under the selection criteria and, as the stroke for K4, he should not be replaced if Luke Michael is put into the team.

"My spot is fairly specialised, so there are other guys under a bit more pressure for their spots than me," Smith said.

"It's not really a great position to be in though, because we don't know what is going to happen.

"But it wouldn't be an Olympic year if something like this didn't happen."

The Olympic kayak team's preparation for Beijing has been thrown into chaos by the CAS decision and Smith said he hoped it would be cleared up quickly.

The squad has been working together for the past six weeks and was due to fly to Europe for World Cup meets next week.

"We haven't done that much work together as a crew but we were looking forward to the trip to Europe to start working on our combination," he said.

"We want to get over there and get some good results to build towards winning a medal at Olympics.

"That's the reason why I started this and I won't be happy unless I get one."

© 2008 Illawarra Mercury

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