Tairawhiti paddlers ready

CELEBRATION: Mareikura Canoe Club member Marama Elkington, representing Te Uranga o Te Ra, celebrates winning the premier women’s W1 500-metre final at the waka ama sprint nationals at Lake Karapiro last January. Elkington is expected to be a force in the premier grade W1 races again next week. Picture by Garrick Cameron

TAIRAWHITI paddlers have history on their side in the waka ama national sprint championships at Lake Karapiro next week, but Horouta Waka Hoe face strong northern competition for the title of top club.

Mareikura Canoe Club and Horouta have some of the country’s top paddlers in their ranks, and Horouta — with 78 team entries in the week-long event — will be trying to win the points trophy for the fifth time in the six years it has been contested.

But Horouta club president Walton Walker said he had heard Te Toki Voyaging Trust — with 88 team entries — were bidding to knock Horouta out of top spot.

“They are from Hamilton and only have to go down the road to get to the venue. We take the view that if we are going to go there and take on this calibre of competition, we go for a purpose.”

Since 2011, Waka Ama New Zealand has awarded a trophy — carved by Waka Ama NZ Hall of Fame inaugural inductee Matahi Brightwell — to the club with most points at the sprint nationals.

Horouta won it the first two years, missed out the next year, and won it again in 2014 and 2015.

Teams reaching finals make points for top-club compThe top-club competition is an opportunity for all paddlers of a reasonable standard to contribute because teams gain points for their club by making a final, Walker says.

“We have 31 teams competing — six each in the midgets, intermediates and J16s; three each in the J19s, premier grade, masters, and senior masters; and one in the golden masters.”

Walker said the club had teams who had been training for six months with the aim of qualifying for the world club championships on the Sunshine Coast, Australia, in May. He expected them to do well.

Paddlers likely to have an impact in the individual races included Manaakiao Maxwell and Kelsey Teneti in the intermediate grade; Keanu Wainohu-Kemp and Gaibreill Wainohu in the J16s; Pharyn Calles, Lucretia Taitapanui, Te Ataakura Tanirau and sisters Cory and Kodi Campbell in the J19 women; elite women’s national sprint coach Kiwi Campbell in the premier grade; Bruce Campbell, Grant Donaldson, Glenn Anderson and Hemi Wahapango in the premier men’s grade; Vesna Radonich, Simmy Taitapanui, Penny Scragg and Florrie Brooking in the master women; and Lisette Jeory-Mugridge in the senior master women.

Mareikura Canoe Club, New Zealand’s first waka ama club, will have 47 team entries in the championships.

With waka ama pioneer and national development (J19) women’s sprint coach Matahi Brightwell and his wife Raipoia at the helm, Mareikura will be especially strong in the junior and women’s grades.

In Marama Elkington and Akayshia Williams they have the W1 250m and 500m titleholders in the premier and J19 women’s grades respectively. Williams will be going for her third double success in a row in her age-group. They will both paddle in Mareikura’s premier-grade six-woman crew.

As well, Matahi and Raipoia Brightwell will be on the water themselves, in the golden masters’ individual races.

Tolaga Bay’s Uawa Tiaki Tai-Hinekura Waka Ama have 25 team entries in the championships. That all the entries are in the grades from midgets to J19s indicates a burgeoning interest on the East Coast.