NZ Canoe Sprint Championships

Lake Tikitapu, Rotorua, 14-16 February 2014

Featuring Lisa Carrington, Olympic gold medalist and World Champion and Teneale Hatton ICF World Champion in Canoe Sprint, Canoe Marathon and Ocean Surf Ski

February 14th – 16th will see kayak sprint paddlers from around New Zealand converge on Lake Tikitapu (Blue Lake) in Rotorua for the highlight of the paddling season – the NZ Canoe Sprint Championships.

The 2013 European season saw some outstanding results for our Kiwi women with New Zealand’s golden girl Lisa Carrington (Eastern Bay) adding five World Cup golds, a World Championship bronze and a World Championship title to her stable and team-mate Teneale Hatton (North Shore) bringing home the 5000m World Championship gold as well as titles in the ICF Marathon and Ocean Surf Ski World Championships in the U23 division.

Both will be racing at the New Zealand Championship and the programme will be available on the website a week prior to racing.

Fellow Olympians Darryl Fitzgerald (Poverty Bay) and Ben Fouhy (North Shore) will also be racing at the champs.

Some of our young up-and-comers will have their sights set firmly on national titles after having achieved well at the Junior World Championships in Canada late last year. The bronze medal winning combination of Aimee Fisher (Hawkes Bay) and Kim Thompson (Poverty Bay) will feature as well as other team members who raced well enough to reach the A finals at the World Champs – so there’s plenty of talent amongst the juniors.

Kiwi battler Scott Martlew who lost his leg as a teen to necrotizing fascitus after a rugby injury, is also racing in the U23 and Open events. Scott placed seventh in the Paracanoe World Champs held in Duisburg, Germany last year and has his sights set on the Rio Olympics in 2016. With no real para-canoe competition here currently he is racing in the able-bodied age groups despite having the added challenge of balancing in a non-modified K1 and having only one leg.

The field is very full with competitors of all ages geared up for some exciting racing. With 210 races in three days the programme is pretty packed and starts at 8.00am each day.

Full race draws, programme and all race information will be available a week prior to the event on our website under NZ Canoe Sprint Champs.

Programme

• Friday/Saturday 500m and 1000m
• Saturday afternoon 200m
• Sunday 200m

ENDS

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