Third-time lucky at world champs, Duncan hopes

It was nothing new when former Chanel College pupil Carl Duncan was named vice-captain of the New Zealand senior men's canoe polo team to compete at the world championships in Milan, Italy, in early September.
Duncan, 27, will be attending his third worlds, having been part of Kiwi sides who were placed 12th in 2006 and eighth in 2008, and he is confident of an even better showing this time around.
''I think this is our strongest team so far and hopefully we can give the top six a decent shot,'' Duncan said yesterday.
The New Zealand side was named after the opening series of matches in the national canoe polo league in Christchurch last week where Duncan and a former Makoura College pupil Kyzen MacDonald led the Wairarapa Paddlers Club's Expose team to victory.
Opposing them in the final was a Christchurch combination that had not been defeated on home territory in the last four years with Expose winning 4-3, Duncan scoring the winning goal just 2secs from fulltime to avoid the pressures of golden goal extra time deciding the result.
''It got pretty tense. There was virtually nothing in it all the way through,'' Duncan said. ''Fortunately we got the last attack and I managed to get the one that counted.''
Expose are, in fact, the defending national champions and their win down south means they will go to the next series of national league matches in Hamilton during the weekend of May 22-23 as top seeds.