Mike Dawson's up creek no more

Normal service resumed in the whitewater slalom kayaking world as Tauranga's Mike Dawson grabbed his seventh national K1 title at the weekend.
Dawson has had a frustrating season back in New Zealand as he builds up for an Olympic qualification shot at the world championships later this year.
He only just qualified for the national team at selection races in January, battling through a heavy training workload, but found the right recipe when he needed it in Kawerau at the weekend.
"It was good to be back on form, finally!" a relieved Dawson said.
"Even though I've still been training pretty hard, I wanted to be going fast because I was pretty annoyed with the selection races," he said.
"The training set me up pretty well for racing at nationals so it was pretty cool to be getting that right too."
Dawson's best run was an 83.55sec effort, comfortably beating home Rotorua's Aaron Osborne, who clocked 84.60secs.
Even more pleasing was heading home 2008 Australian Olympian Warwick Draper, 87.06secs, while Tauranga teenagers Callum Gibb, Carl Whitehead and Andre Sperling filled out fourth, fifth and seventh respectively.
Dawson has now won every senior K1 title he's entered since bursting on to the scene in 2004, only missing the 2009 nationals because he was in Europe.
Another Tauranga local, Rotorua-based Luuka Jones, also won her fourth national K1 women's title, clocking 97.2secs to be more than 6secs clear of Otaki's Louise Jull.
Te Puke's Nikki Whitehead was third, in front of Ella and Jane Nicholas and 18-year-old Kelly Travers.
Travers impressed in winning the C1 women's division, heading home Jones and Jull, then paired with older brother Shaun to win the mixed C2.
Tauranga's Ben Gibb cleaned up in the C1 men, pipping Draper by just 0.03secs but finishing well clear of the next New Zealander, Shaun Travers.
It was Gibb's first title since his switch in focus from the C2 class, although he was still good enough to pair with Tauranga Boys' College paddler Cole O'Connor-Stratton to win the C2 crown.
Meanwhile, some sharp performances from O'Connor Stratton weren't enough to keep a 14-year streak going for Tauranga Boys' at the New Zealand secondary schools championships last week.
For the first time since 1997, South Island's Dunstan High School broke the Tauranga Boys' dominance by winning the title as best kayaking school, though Tauranga Boys' and Tauranga Girls' still collected their respective gender divisions.
The Phil Dooney Cup for top male paddler went to Dunstan's Robert Hervey, while the Heather Jull Cup and Lucy Forde Trophies went to Anna Higgins (Tauranga Girls').
O'Connor-Stratton took out the under-18 C1 and K1 titles but a nightmare downriver run and a broken paddle ruled him out of the top overall trophy.