Women of steel dig it in

Coach Ivan Karaitiana is confident the Wairarapa Cancer Society women's team can come away with medals from the national dragon-boat racing championships in Ashburton this weekend.

They will contest 200m, 500m and 2km events and Karaitiana is adamant that if they paddle to their potential nothing is beyond them.

"It's all about the top six inches, if they keep composed and focus on the job in hand they will do very well but if they let the occasion get to them they'll flop ... that's the way it is," Karaitiana said.

That the Cancer Society squad is in the right form to make a bold showing cannot be argued.

Just last Saturday they travelled to Auckland to compete in a regional regatta at which qualifying spots for the nationals were up for grabs and they produced outstanding results, winning over 500m, finishing 10th overall, proving the fastest women's team over 2km and placing third over 200m.

Their 500m victory was a testimony to their fighting qualities. With rookie sweep Kaira Karaitiana guiding them on a course so affected by the wind that team numbers were reduced from 20 to 16 for safety reasons, they struggled to keep a straight line for the first 250m and were about three-quarters of a length behind the leading team. But they slowly made up that leeway and in a thrilling finish got the nod by eight one-hundredths of a second.

"They dug really deep when it mattered most, I was just so proud of them," Ivan Karaitiana said. "But I wasn't surprised, I call them my women of steel because of how gutsy they are, so I knew they'd go hard right to the end."

A week earlier, they won the 300m at the Wellington regional regatta.