In their early 70s and 60s, Nick Hocking and Colin Calderwood could have been forgiven for thinking their Olympic dreams were over.
That was until Paddle Australia, the governing body for canoeing and kayaking, came calling.
Nick Hocking (left) and Colin Calderwood (right) with club coach Margi Bohm in Australian colours at the Oceania championships.Credit: Burley Griffin Canoe Club newsletter
Officials were scrambling to find another pair for the men’s canoe double (C2) 500m race at the Oceania Canoe Sprint Championships in western Sydney in February.
A minimum of three boats were needed in the field for it to retain its status as an Olympic quota event, allowing the winning nation to qualify a boat for Paris 2024.
However, with Australia’s top men’s competitors concentrating on trying to make the Games in other races, only New Zealand and Samoa had entered teams.
After an SOS from Paddle Australia, Hocking and Calderwood – members of the Burley Griffin Canoe Club in Canberra – came to the rescue.
Born in 1953, Hocking was nearly half a century older than the Kiwi and Samoan paddlers, while Calderwood, born in 1961, was giving away nearly as many years.
Donning Australian team singlets at the Sydney International Regatta Centre at Penrith, they finished 1.34.88s behind the second-placed Samoan pair, which was edged out by 3.62s by the New Zealanders.
But just by starting, Hocking and Calderwood played a unique role in the make-up of the Olympic canoe sprint regatta – which begins at the Vaires-sur-Marne Nautical Stadium east of Paris on Tuesday – doing a favour for Australia’s trans-Tasman neighbour, often a fierce sporting rival, along the way.
Collecting a much-needed Olympic quota spot that was made possible by the Australian duo’s participation, New Zealand was able to select enough paddlers for Paris to enter a team in the men’s kayak four (K4), a high-priority race for a country whose three most-decorated Olympians are kayakers.
Hocking and Calderwood in action in the Olympic quota race in western Sydney.Credit: Burley Griffin Canoe Club
Hocking and Calderwood had been given 10 days to fine-tune for the Olympic qualifier in the canoe, in which a single-bladed paddle is used as opposed to the double-bladed one for kayaks and in which paddlers compete on one knee rather than sitting down.
“How hard can 500 metres be?” their local canoe club recounted in its newsletter. “Well, if you are balancing on one knee with an average boat age of 65 years (more than twice that of the competition!), it does take a fair bit of effort to prepare, especially given that Nick and Colin would be wearing the Australian racing singlet and representing the Australian C-boat community. No pressure!
“But Colin and Nick persevered, and progress was made daily. Nick was the hothead, raring to go, kneeling in the front position and not without a bit of instability! Colin is the calm one; quietly but firmly directing Nick’s energies from behind and maintaining the balance of the crew. They worked well together.”
On the day, the much younger elite New Zealand paddlers were far more powerful, although, as kayakers, they were comparatively unfamiliar with the canoeing discipline, so much so that they sat in the boat rather than knelt as they propelled it down the course.
The Kiwis’ time was 11 seconds slower than the slowest finishing boat at last year’s world championships in Germany, and would have had them crossing the line almost 30 seconds behind the last-placed team in the final there if they had been in it.
But while they are likely to be well outside medal contention in Paris, two of the Kiwis’ K4 crew will also turn out in the C2 500m in Paris by virtue of the spot earned against the veteran Australian duo in Sydney.
Hocking and Calderwood’s task in the Olympic quota event was made somewhat more complicated just before the start when the venue’s rescue boat motored past, creating waves that rocked their canoe back and forth.
“But Colin calmly talked Nick into the start gate and there we were ... Nick and Colin staring down the 500m course at the start of the Oceania Sprint Championships – representing Australia in the gold and green,” the club newsletter reported.
“Sport is about community and the Olympic Games is supposed to be about bringing nations together in peace. Colin and Nick epitomise that spirit.”
Australia has an 11-member team in Paris for the Olympic canoe sprint competition. It includes a boat in the K4 500m in which the quartet of Jackson Collins, Riley Fitzsimmons, Noah Havard and Pierre van der Westhuyzen will race.