Canoe slalom: Dominant showing at nats

Tauranga's Jane Nicholas won a national canoe slalom title. Photo / CSNZ / Ian Mercer

The Canoe Slalom NZ Nationals were held over three days last week at the National Whitewater Centre of Excellence in Shannon, near Palmerston North.

As expected, current or former Tauranga-based paddlers dominated proceedings which followed on from a highly successful national secondary schools event for Tauranga Boys' and Tauranga Girls' colleges which were named top schools.

Canoe Slalom BOP spokesperson Sue Clarke, team manager for the New Zealand junior and under-23 teams currently in Brazil contesting the world champs, says the results were excellent.

"In particular I think Jane Nicholas, Jack Dangen and James Thwaite were pretty thrilled with how well they did," she said.

"Jack was happy to put a good steady final run together and be second behind Mike [Dawson]. Clearly there is some tough competition there. Callum Gilbert had won the semis and there was plenty of pressure on the line. Jack is only 16 so it was a pretty good result for him before he went to Brazil.

"Jane had been pretty close to winning under-23 titles in both categories twice but had never managed to get her name on the trophy. She has done that now and was very consistent finishing second to Luuka [Jones] as well. She is finding it difficult being a fifth-year med student and juggling training but she too was excited about the trip to Brazil."

Clarke is confident the New Zealand team will perform with distinction in Brazil which she knows is not the easiest place to compete at.