Gisborne's Jacqueline Kennedy (left) and Christy Tate acquitted themselves well among elite young international athletes at the ICF Junior and U23 Canoe Sprint World Champs in Bulgaria.
Gisborne's Jacqueline Kennedy (left) and Christy Tate acquitted themselves well among elite young international athletes at the ICF Junior and U23 Canoe Sprint World Champs in Bulgaria.
Gisborne’s two representatives at the International Canoe Federation Junior and Under-23 sprints world championships in Bulgaria gave a good account of themselves against tough opposition.
Jacqueline Kennedy, a member of Poverty Bay Kayak Club, and Christy Tate, who paddles with North Shore Canoe Club, represented New Zealand in K1, K2 and K4 disciplines.
They were part of a 15-member New Zealand team who travelled to the city of Plovdiv for five days of intense racing.
As a lead-up to the Olympic Games in Paris, the competition was extremely tough. Large countries like Spain, Hungary, Czech Republic, China and Germany showed their dominance in many of the disciplines.
Some of the paddlers in these races were preparing for the Paris Olympics and senior world championships later in August.
Tate, racing in the U23 women’s division, teamed up with Julia Padrutt (Waitara) in the K2 500m. They advanced from a fast heat to repeat their fifth place in the semis, which put them into the B-final.
Gisborne's Christy Tate teamed with Waitara's Julia Padrutt for the K2 500m in the Under-23 age group of the world junior and U23 canoe sprint champs. They were seventh in the B final.
The pair finished seventh - just 1.5 seconds behind the winners.
Tate was fourth in her K1 200m heat to move to the semifinals, where she recorded a solid sixth, again putting her into the B final, in which she placed seventh.
Kennedy raced in the Junior (18 and under) K4 500m and K1 500m.
In the K4, the team moved from their heat to the semifinals but, with tough teams racing, did not progress to the final.
However, in her K1 500m, Kennedy posted a fast second in her heat to advance to the semifinals.
After a hard-fought battle, she made the C-final, in which she paddled ferociously to fifth.
Poverty Bay Kayak Club teenager Jacqueline Kennedy, 15, made the semifinals in the junior (18 and under) K1 500m and posted a gutsy fifth in the C-final.
For a 15-year-old competing in her first fully international competition against seasoned competitors, Kennedy did well to make finals day. She ended up a creditable 23rd overall.
Kennedy has two more years in this age group and after a well-deserved rest, and a summer of surf lifesaving in the Surf Life Saving NZ (SLNZ) high-performance youth squad, she will be looking to gear up and train hard for the next ICF Junior and U23 world championships in Portugal in July 2025.
Tate, 23, will focus on her studies at Auckland University and is also a member of the SLNZ high-performance senior squad.
Both athletes were grateful for the “super support” of Gisborne businesses and the Tairāwhiti community, whose generous contributions enabled them to compete on the world stage.
