Battle on the lake

Horouta Waka Hoe club members on the water in a double-hull waka. Gisborne clubs are travelling to Lake Karapiro to compete at the national sprint championships beginning tomorrow. Picture by Paul Rickard

Tairāwhiti paddlers are setting new marks before racing even starts in the waka ama national sprint championships at Lake Karapiro tomorrow.

Self Storage Gisborne Horouta Waka Hoe Club has 264 registered paddlers competing at the nationals.

They fill the seats for 42 teams, ranging from midgets to golden masters 70-plus.

“This is the biggest turnout we’ve had for the nationals,” Horouta club chairman Walton Walker said.

“Given the growth of the sport and the fact that we’ve had the largest club turnout in the past few years, I think it’s safe to say this is the largest representation from any club at any national champs.”

Walker said the rebound from years affected by Covid and Cyclone Gabrielle had come with its own struggles.  Many of the teams competing at next week’s nationals were not there at the start of the preparations.

Even in the past few weeks, three junior teams had been added to the contingent.

The club’s 42 teams put in a total of 97 entries across 47 events.

Of those, 20 were youth teams (midgets to J19s), 21 were adult teams (open to golden masters 70-plus) and one was an adaptive team — the first the club had entered in the nationals.

This would also be the first time the club was represented by men’s and women’s golden masters 70-plus teams, while the entries of four men’s teams and three women’s teams in the golden masters (60 to 69) division showed how popular the sport was among older people who wanted to keep fit and active.

Six teams from Ūawa Tiaki Tai were also paddling under the Horouta banner this year, while two teams from the Ūawa club — J19 men and premier women — were competing under their own colours.

Walker said the Horouta teams to watch out for included the J16 women’s Puhi Kaiariki crew that included Hine Brooking, Marnie Toloa and Riria Ata, the J19 men’s Tama Ki Te Rangi crew, the open women’s Kaiarahi Toa team that once more included coach Kiwi Campbell, the open men’s Woolley Kumaras crew brought together by Bruce Campbell, and a host of senior age-group teams who had been training hard through the winter with the nationals in view.

New Zealand’s first waka ama club, Mareikura, has 16 teams putting in 27 entries across 18 events. YMP Waka Ama has seven teams putting in 10 entries across nine events.