Canoe Racing New Zealand Inc.
Canoe Racing Looking Forward To Bright Future
18 December 2012
Canoe Racing New Zealand is looking forward to a bright future following High Performance Sport New Zealand’s (HPSNZ)
announcement today that they will increase their investment in the Canoe Racing high performance programme over the next
two years and elevate the sport’s status to a Targeted Tier 3 sport.
Lisa Carrington’s outstandin g performance this year to become Olympic Champion in London continues a strong Olympic
kayaking legacy and presents an opportunity to continue to build on this 2012 success.
Key learnings from the 2012 Olympic campaign have been carefully applied by Canoe Racing’s High Performance Team in the
development of a robust and detailed four-year high performance plan that should position the sport well to deliver
success in Rio.
Canoe Racing is fortunate to have the services of a world class coach in Gordon Walker. A key component of the plan
leading to future success will be the creation of a high performance coaching team to share his skills and knowledge
with a wider group.
The sport’s exciting depth of talent at age group level will benefit from this increased coaching resource ensuring that
medal success doesn’t end in Rio but with a long-term view to sustainable medal-producing performances in 2020.
Promising young para-athlete Scott Martlew is also set to benefit from HPSNZ’s additional funding support. His inclusion
in the high performance programme as a serious gold medal hope for the Rio Paralympics will be a first for Canoe Racing,
with kayaking being introduced to the Paralympics programme in 2016.
HPSNZ’s confidence in the sport’s ability to deliver on the water demonstrated by their increased investment underpins
an exciting opportunity for Canoe Racing to build a programme that will position the sport to deliver sustainable
medal-producing performances for New Zealand in future Olympic Games.
ENDS