Cairns to go wild just one more time

Anne Cairns is aiming for a top five finish in the women's K1 sprint event at the World Wild Water Kayaking Championships to be held in Spain from June 7 to 13.
Cairns, from Masterton, finished an impressive seventh in the same event at the worlds when they were held in Italy two years ago and after an intensive 12-week training programme is optimistic she can place even higher on this occasion.
''Training has gone well, very well,'' she said. ''Everything has pretty much gone according to plan so I'm not going to have any excuses in that respect.''
Cairns is expecting to be part of a field of about 50 kayakers in the KI sprint who will be timed over two runs, each of which is likely to last about two minutes.
Cairns said the physical requirements were such that preparatory work included weight training and running (between 20km and 30km a week) to ensure the stamina levels were up to scratch.
''It's very exhausting, you have about one hour between each of your runs so there is not a lot of time to recover,'' she said. ''Fitness is vital, you can't afford to tire.''
Cairns emphasises too the importance of being mentally strong, particularly in the second run where competitors are seeded on the time they recorded in their first run, meaning the fastest goes last.
Also important is tactical nous with the kayakers needing to correctly judge the most profitable lines to take with river flow being a significant part of that assessment process.
Cairns admits she will start on the back foot in that regard because most of the top Europeans would have intimate knowledge of the intricacies of the Spanish course.
And that's not the only disadvantage Cairns has to overcome. She will also be one of the few serious medal contenders with a fulltime job..
Cairns concedes that with no funding available from kayaking's national body she would not be going to Spain but for the generosity of a group of sponsors ... Community Leisure Management, Trust House, Wairarapa Multisport Club, Dannevirke Mitre 10 and Britten's Lawyers (Palmerston North).
''I can't thank them enough, quite honestly they're the reason why I'm going,'' she said.
So time-consuming are the fundraising issues, Cairns has decided the 2010 wild water worlds will be her last and to make her focus flat water racing, where the national teams have the benefit of SPARC funding.