Four medals for kayaker Cairns

Ace Masterton kayaker Anne Cairns came away from the sprint nationals at Rotorua last weekend with one gold and three silver medals.
The gold came when Cairns and her K2 partner, Marianne Archer, teamed up with Agnes Szabo from Poverty Bay and Kayla Imrie from Wellington to win the senior women's K4 500m title.
For Cairns, this was the highlight of the championships as they beat the hotly-favoured North Shore crew who had three of the New Zealand K4 team members in their squad.
That same North Shore line-up did get revenge, however, when they defeated Cairns and company in the K4 200m by less than half-a-second and Cairns and Archer were second over 200m and 500m in the K2 division pairs as well.
Results in the K1 grade for Cairns were "somewhat disappointing" with seventh placings being recorded over the 200m and 500m.
While not wanting to make excuses, she conceded that training alone and her financial situation, which means she is forced to take on full-time employment, probably did have an adverse effect on her performance levels.
There was also the problem created by the condition of Henley Lake in Masterton for training purposes with weed and algae sometimes making it impossible to kayak there.
"It does make it hard for any of the water-sport groups in the area to make use of the lake during the spring and summer," she said.
Cairns has now turned her attention to Waka Ama racing and this weekend will be competing in the Takapuna Cup event around Rangitoto Island with the crew she won the national long-distance Waka Ama title with earlier this year at Ohope.
After that, it will be time for a break and she will wait and see whether New Zealand qualify a K4 team for the 2012 London Olympics. If that happens, Cairns will aim her future training at making that team, otherwise she has selection for the wild water kayaking world championships in France - also in 2012 - as a possible target.