Kiwi K2 1000m duo Steven Ferguson and Darryl Fitzgerald have finished seventh in the Olympic final.

And Ferguson, one of New Zealand's most experienced Olympians, says he's already considering a fifth Games campaign.

Despite charging back with 250m to go, Ferguson and Fitzgerald couldn't break into medal contention in a fast final where only .053s separated gold from silver.

Hungary's Rudolf Dombi and Ronald Kokeny just managed to hold off the Portuguese pair of Emmanuel Silver and Fernando Pimenta in a photo finish while Germans Martin Hollstein and Andreas Ihle took bronze.

Ferguson and Fitzgerald, a crew not long established and the latter on Olympic debut, said they were happy with the race.

"I think we executed the exact game plan we've been training for over the last couple of months, we did it almost to perfection but our big surge just couldn't quite get over those guys next to us," Fitzgerald said.

"But we're both happy with how we raced and we gave it our all."

Ferguson, who has represented New Zealand in both swimming and canoeing at Olympic level, said the plan was always to try and catch tiring crews on the line.

"From experience you know people start dying in the last 250m, and that's where you don't want to die. That's where you win races," Ferguson said.

"Unfortunately, we didn't quite have enough mustard but we're really happy with that race. We've worked hard together and are proud of each others' efforts over the last wee while.

"It's onwards and upwards from here I guess."

Heading into London 2012, Ferguson, 32, was non-committal over his Olympic future.

But he has now given the first glimpse of wanting to develop the partnership with Fitzgerald, 21, and give his Olympic dream one final shot at Rio 2016.

"We'll just keep plugging away, see what we can do, we'll take a lot out of that final," he said.

"The K1 winner is 36, I'm only 32 so there's plenty of time there to go.

"I'm definitely open to Rio, I haven't shut that door yet. I want to go home and re-evaluate where I'm at."

Fitzgerald, who said he'd enjoyed the "massive learning curve" of the Olympics said he'd like to continue in the K2 beside Ferguson.

"I've definitely got the bug and I've enjoyed the whole experience of being an athlete," he said.

"Like Steve said, hopefully there's a few more years to come."

- © Fairfax NZ News