For Hawke's Bay Olympian Anne Cairns the World Masters Games in Auckland were originally pencilled into her diary as a training stint for next month's world distance waka ama championships in Tahiti.
"I paid $350 to enter my kayaking events. Then I discovered I could enter some surf lifesaving events for an extra $50. For that amount of extra money I thought I might as well do every event possible to make it worthwhile and to make it some good training," Cairns recalled while driving home to Dannevirke from Auckland last night.
A Samoan kayaking representative at the Rio Olympics, Cairns, 36, certainly made it worthwhile. She won 17 medals at the Games, 16 golds and one silver, which is a Hawke's Bay record and possibly a world record for an individual at the April 21-30 Games which involved almost 28,000 athletes.
Competing in the 35-40 age group the Ocean Beach Kiwi Surf Lifesaving Club paddler won four golds in surf lifesaving events - the individual surf ski, the surf canoe team, the ocean canoe relay and the ski relay. Cairns was the only Hawke's Bay member of composite crews in these team events.
Representing her country of birth, Samoa - as she has done for the last three years in kayaking events - Cairns, won gold in the 15km ocean ski as well as K1, K2, K4 and K4 mixed 1000m finals, K1, K2 and K2 mixed 200m finals and K1, K2 and K4 500m finals.