New Zealand's rapidly rising kayaking talent will showcase their skills on the world stage this week, at the 2016 ICF junior and under-23 canoe slalom world championships in Poland.
The 14-strong team features five under-23 paddlers - Callum Gilbert, Finn Butcher, Kelly Travers, Anna Higgins and Patrick Washer - who have been racing the senior ICF World Cup series this season.
They'll be joined by junior paddlers Zack Mutton, Callum Aitken, Kensa Randle, Josh Bell and Otis Rayner, with Theo Pepper, Courtney Williams, Kaydi O'Connor-Stratton and James Thwaite also racing in the under-23 division.
The six-day event will be held at the Kolna world championships course, on the banks of the Wisla River just out of Kraków, with the Kiwi paddlers getting plenty of practice in before the under-23 and junior C1 competition starts tonight.
Paddlers also warmed up by racing the ECA European Open Junior Slalom Cup in the German city of Augsburg recently, where Mutton, Randle and Bell all made finals, with Mutton finishing third in one of the under-16 K1 finals.