Paddle dabble pays for Gurden's Euro vision

By JAMIE TROUGHTON
Eric Gurden has switched schools, given up his first sporting love soccer and spent hours training in pre-dawn rain and mist.
Now those sacrifices are about to pay off.
The 16-year-old Tauranga kayaker heads off today for a six-week adventure which culminates in the junior world canoe slalom championships in Slovenia.
He's joining four other Tauranga paddlers - Abby Dawson, Luuka Jones, Bryden Nicholas and Andrew Robinson - in the nine-strong New Zealand team.
Gurden moved up from Taranaki with his family when he was seven, and two years later wandered down to the Waimarino Adventure Park in a fit of curiosity, and there picked up a paddle.
He was soon hooked - but the current national under-18 K1 champion's on-water career only took off 18 months ago, when he made a tough call to leave Otumoetai College and join Nicholas and Robinson and at Tauranga Boys' College.
"It was pretty much just because of the kayaking," Gurden said. "It's just a lot easier to get places, with the Tauranga Kayaking Club they've got set up there. There's also guys like Bryden and Andrew pushing the rest of us.
"Me and Luuka were pretty much the only ones doing it at Otumoetai, and it was hard to get to national events and things."
The Boys' College production line has churned out a number of kayaking stars in recent years, including Jared Meehan, Johann Roozenburg and Mike Dawson, who are also in Europe competing on the world cup circuit.
Gurden, the youngest member of the junior team, is eligible for the worlds again next year and wants to soak up as much as he can in the upcoming month and a half.
"I've still got another year next year, so this year I'm hoping to make the semifinals, and really step up and make finals next year."
Nicholas and Robinson are using the trip to launch their campaign for inclusion in the Beijing Olympics. They've formed a strong combination in the C2 (double canoe) and are the current national senior champions.
Jones is the national secondary school K1 champion and won the top female paddler title over several canoeing disciplines, while Dawson has followed older brothers Mike and James into the sport with considerable success.
The team will meet coach Andy Raspin - a former Great Britain Junior coach - in Augsberg, Germany and will travel to Merano in Italy to train and race in a senior 'C' class race there.
They'll then head to the Czech Republic to race in Ceske Budejovice and train on the senior world cup course in Prague, before heading to Solkan, Slovenia for the start of their junior worlds campaign.
NZ team: Abby Dawson, Luuka Jones, Andrew Robinson, Bryden Nicholas, Eric Gurden (Tauranga), Louise Jull (Wanaka), Hamish Gibson (Gore), Thomas Murray (Alexandra), Chris Atkinson (Masterton).
Manager: Sue Clarke (Tauranga).