Sports Talk: Bay athletes competing locally, nationally and internationally

Jack Egan from Aquinas College competing at the New Zealand Secondary Schools Champs at Hawea. Photo / Supplied

Term one is the end of our main canoe slalom season with many local, national and international events that Sport Bay of Plenty athletes have competed in.

The year started with the New Zealand selection races and Oceania Championships held in Mangahao near Palmerston North and WERO in Auckland, before several athletes headed to the Australian Open, held in Penrith, Sydney.

New Zealand Secondary Schools Champs were held in Wanaka on the Hawea River and Nationals were held in Tekapo over Easter, then a team headed to Barcelona for the Youth Olympics Qualifications.

From left, Kate Hawthorne, Kahlia Cullwick, Holly Sheaff and Jessica Cotterill. Photo / Supplied

Canoe Slalom Bay of Plenty athletes have represented themselves well at this event and the following athletes made the New Zealand Team for the World Canoe Slalom Juniors in Italy this July: Callum Gilbert, Patrick Washer, Jack Egan, Stewart Bloor, Charlie Bell, Courtney Williams, Damian Torwick, Jack Dangen, James Twaite and Claudia Patterson.
Our senior paddlers – Mike Dawson, Luuka Jones, Jane Nicholas and Ben Gibb – are also heading to Europe for the World Cups.

Five paddlers went to Barcelona in April for the qualification event for the Youth Olympics, which is being held in Buenos Aires in October.

The format for this event is a combination of canoe sprint and canoe slalom and Finn Anderson was the stand out success finishing second in the canoe slalom out of 50 paddlers. This placed him 17th overall, combined sprint and slalom times.

Finn Anderson from Tauranga Boys College, who was second at the Youth Olympics qualification. Photo / Supplied

Our coaches have also been busy with all the New Zealand events and also recent appointments to New Zealand coaching positions.

Pierre Labarelle has taken on the role of high performance coach for the Senior New Zealand team and heads to Europe with the team from the middle of this month to the end of September. Meanwhile, Matt McKnight has been coaching the Youth Olympics team and travelled to Barcelona with the team.

We farewelled our other coach Kaca Anton (nee Macova), as Kaca is heading off to travel overseas with her husband – we wish her all the best.