Canoe Slalom: Tauranga sisters claim titles

Jane Nicholas won the C1W North Island title on the Tarawera River. Photo / Glenys Travers

Tauranga sisters Ella and Jane Nicholas won titles at the Canoe Slalom North Island Championships on the Tarawera River.

Ella won the K1W and Jane the C1W North Island titles.

Having flown north from Christchurch, where they are studying medicine, for a National Performance Squad training camp, the pair finished the weekend on a high with the double wins.

Ella, who paddles internationally for the Cook Islands, was in second after the heats but picked up the pace to put down a flat time of 110.35 plus a 2s penalty to finish just over 3s ahead of Haylee Dangen from Tauranga in the final.

Sister Jane, who is in the New Zealand team for K1 and C1, took the C1 title by just 0.28s from fellow Canoe Slalom BOP paddler Kelly Travers.

Jane, who finished third New Zealander in K1, said it was challenging having to use a borrowed boat as difficulties continue to present themselves flying with kayaks.

"If anyone is going to beat me, I'm happier if it's my sister Ella," she said.

Number one ranked senior team member, Rotorua-based, Ben Gibb easily claimed the C1 men's title on a day that bizarrely saw three of his main competitors out with injury or illness. Gibb said afterwards he was making gains on performing more consistently and was happy with his three runs of the day that were all within 2s of each other.

The K1 men's title went to Alex Hawthorne of Tauranga who is in his first year out of juniors, just 1.95s ahead of New Zealand U23 team member Malcolm Gibson of Palmerston North. Predictably the C2 title went to Dan Munro and Luke Robinson of Tauranga who are looking to go one better than their 2014 silver medal performance at the Junior World Championships in Brazil next month.