Kayak Coach to Batten Down Hatches

Talking to Coach Reg Hatch leaves one with the strong impression that he is fed up with U.S. futility in Olympic canoeing and kayaking.

Preliminary trials for the U.S. canoe/kayak team ended Monday at the Arco Olympic Training Center, and Hatch left no doubt that he expected a turn for the better in Atlanta.

“Just give me a team that can win,” Hatch said. “I don’t want anyone who’s just satisfied to get there.”

Only in 1988, when Greg Barton of Newport Beach and Norman Bellingham of Rockville, Md., won the 1,000-meter kayak doubles, has an American earned an Olympic gold medal in the sport. More often than not, the United States has had no medal winners at all.

This time, though, Hatch can envision several medals, including a couple of golds.

Heading the list of medal candidates are the 500-meter kayak doubles team of Stein Jorgensen of San Diego and John Mooney of Eugene, Ore., and three-time Olympian Jim Terrell of Milford, Ohio, in 1,000-meter canoe singles.

Other prospects, all kayakers, include the husband-wife duo of Mike and Alexandra Harbold of Honolulu; Mike Herbert, Rogers, Ark; Peter Newton, Bellevue, Wash., and Traci Phillips, Honolulu.

The 27 athletes selected Monday will remain here for a two-week training camp, beginning Wednesday. As many as 23 of them will go on to the final Olympic trials in Gainesville, Ga., May 4-5.

“It will almost be a battle of attrition,” Hatch said, and Harbold indicated Hatch wasn’t kidding.

“Reg focuses on producing winners, not being politically correct,” Harbold said. “He’s tough, but he drives you in a way that you don’t resent. He has a great sense of humor, and best of all, he does everything he expects you to do.”

Terrell won two events Monday, the 500-meter canoe singles and the 500-meter canoe doubles with Brandon Krovoza of Newport Beach. Other winners, also at 500 meters, were Jorgensen and Mooney in kayak doubles and Herbert and Phillips in men’s and women’s kayak singles, respectively.

Mike Barrowman of Costa Mesa, an Olympic swimming gold-medal winner in 1992, finished 11th in kayaking and was eliminated, but took his disappointment philosophically.

“I got into it just two years ago,” he said. “I had reached every goal in swimming, and I wanted a new challenge. I enjoy it, and actually, I didn’t expect to get this close in two years.”