University of Otago student Finn Butcher has the potential to go to the Olympics. He proved it at the world junior canoe slalom championships in Slovakia recently.
Butcher (18), an applied science student in sports technology, finished 16th in the K1 junior men's event in a field of 83.
In the qualifying runs, he was ranked 30th, but he moved up his ranking in the semifinals.
He had a gate touch penalty of 2sec and without that he would have gained a top-10 placing.
New Zealand's best result in the K1 men's event was the 10th by 2012 Olympian Mike Dawson.
''The result shows that he is on the right track,'' Canoe Slalom New Zealand committee member Sue Clarke said.
''Even more impressive is that Butcher and his fellow team-mates in Dunedin have only a few flatwater gates on the Leith to train on and no coach in Dunedin.
''This is in stark contrast to the Europeans, who have purpose-built courses, solid coaching programmes and quality races most weekends.''
Butcher grew up in Alexandra and has been canoeing for the past nine years. He came into national prominence when he was at Dunstan High School.
His goal is to make the New Zealand senior team next year and qualify for the Rio de Janeiro Olympics in 2016.
''But it won't be easy because each country can only have one entry in each event. I will have to push out Mike Dawson,'' Butcher said.
''My peak will be in 2020 and I'm only second choice at the moment.''
In his build-up to the world championships, Butcher teamed with fellow Alexandra student Marcus Norbury to win a gold medal at a European junior world series race in Solkan, Slovenia.
Tauranga siblings Anna and Shaun Higgins also competed at the world junior championships.
Anna was 44th in the K1 women's event and Shaun was 35th in the C1 men's race. They are both students at the University of Otago.
