Aside from the withdrawals of Rote and Simpson the other major omission from the field was the double British champion and 1975 European runner-up David Hemery who was studying at university in the US, and had failed to qualify for the 1976 European final after finishing a narrow third in his heat. Had he paddled his Kayak 0.4 seconds faster or scored two more points in the pistol shooting he would have made the final, and with other strong European challengers (like Ties Kruize, Kevin Keegan and Björn Borg) also absent, the European challenge was significantly poorer.