It's a first at world championship level but Hawke's Bay waka ama paddlers Roni Nuku and Kaye Ross will have plenty of previous experience to call upon.
Nuku and Ross are the only Bay paddlers in the New Zealand masters women's over-40 six-person crew which will compete in the inaugural world distance championships in Tahiti during June. The multiple world and national sprint distance champions were both members of the Kiwi composite crew which won gold at the world sprint championships on the Gold Coast last year.
"This time we will have a different crew and we will be racing over 27km instead of the sprint distances," Nuku said attempting to deflate the high level of expectation which usually accompanies the pair when they head overseas.
The fact Napier Girls' High School Te Reo Maori teacher Nuku and Hukarere Girls College physical education teacher Ross were key members of the Haeata Ocean Sports Club's Manuz'n'Jamimaz crew which won four consecutive 25km titles at the national long distance champs from 2010-2013 will work in their favour. So will the numerous training camps their crew will have before departing to Tahiti.
The first since Wellington-based coach Turi Hodges named his seven-strong squad after the trial process ended three weeks ago was staged in Napier at the weekend.