Tauranga teen paddlers face worlds challenge

Callum Aitken is one of seven Tauranga paddlers off to junior world champs in Slovakia. Photo / File

Canoe slalom

It is a challenge any young sportsperson would relish.

Seven of Tauranga's finest young canoe slalom paddlers leave for Europe over the next fortnight to prepare for the 2017 ICF Canoe Slalom Junior and U23 World Championship to be held in Bratislava, Slovakia in July.

K1 kayak exponents Alex Hawthorne, Claudia Paterson, Callum Aitken and Damian Torwick, plus C1 canoe paddlers Jack Egan, Josh Bell and Stuart Bloor, will take on the world's best athletes in their categories at one of Europe's most challenging, artificial whitewater slalom courses.

But the teenagers' preparation was adversely affected by not being able to train on the Kaituna River whitewater, due to exceptionally high rain levels, which caused the dam gates on the river to be left open in an effort to get lake levels down.

So the next generation of high-performing athletes hoping to follow in the pathway set by Olympians Luuka Jones and Mike Dawson have had to train every weekend on the Vector Wero Whitewater Centre in Manukau.

Claudia Paterson, 18, said it was tiring having to travel so far to train.

"Juggling schoolwork and sport is already tricky, but when you add in being away every weekend it's pretty full-on," she said.

The travel has taken its toll but when it comes to resilient athletes this group of paddlers takes some beating.

Callum Aitken, 17, who came 24th at last year's junior world championships, began an arborist apprenticeship this year.

Juggling work and training has been a daily challenge. But he found benefits to training at the world-class facility that opened in Manukau last April.

"It is really good for your technique in jumping holes and keeping the boat moving fast at a nice speed right the way through. I think I have gained a lot of expertise from training up there," Aitken said.

"Last year was my first time racing on the world stage. I learnt so much from being there and what it is like to race under that sort of pressure. Knowing what I learnt then, I hope to make the finals this year."

Paterson, 18, flies out today to be the first of the Tauranga paddlers to leave for Europe.

After a stop-off to visit family in the UK, she will train in Prague for 10 days before heading to Bratislava to compete in the Bratislava Open.

"It's great being able to do a build-up race in the same location as the junior world championships. The water at Bratislava is quite big so the more time we have to get used to it the better," she said.

Alex Hawthorne, who is studying sport and recreation at Toi Ohomai, leaves next week. As a member of the New Zealand senior K1 team, he will also compete in the third race of the World Cup series in Germany.

The other athletes are still at school so will be packing schoolbooks with their helmets and buoyancy aids.

For Jack Egan and Stuart Bloor it is their first time competing at junior world championship level.