Cousins go far in search of waka ama gold

COUSINS AND COMPETITORS: Gisborne paddlers and cousins Darius Apanui-Nepe (left) and Keanu Wainohu-Kemp (right) travelled long distances to train with teams as they pursued dreams of waka ama world sprint championship success. Keanu’s sister Gaibreill — paddling in the elite women’s double-hull, in Horouta and composite club crews, and as a single-seat competitor — also collected a swag of medals. They are pictured after competing on the last day of the world championships at Lake Kawana on the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Australia. Picture by Walton Walker

GISBORNE cousins born two days apart helped power northern crews to first and second places in the same race at the waka ama world sprint championships in Australia last week.

Darius Apanui-Nepe and Keanu Wainohu-Kemp, both 15, were recruited by the clubs after standout performances in one-man races at the national sprint championships at Lake Karapiro.

When representatives from the clubs saw them race and learned they were not in a team, they came up with plans to include them in world championship combinations.

Darius was spotted at the 2015 national championships and Keanu, at this year’s champs.

With the support of Gisborne Boys’ High School, the mother of one of his Waitakere Outrigger Canoe Club teammates arranged for Darius to spend a term at Rutherford College, Te Atatu, this year while he trained with the club’s J16 (16 and under) crew.

Meanwhile, his cousin Keanu — two days the elder — spent one weekend in three (four weekend trips in total) and two weeks of school holidays at Te Tii, Northland, training with Fat Oysters, the J16 team named after the locally gathered seafood and racing for Kaihoe o Ngati Rehia Trust.

The usual routine entailed 13 hours of bus travel spread over the Thursday and Friday, and a car journey from Whangarei to Te Tii, near Kerikeri. He would stay with coach Danny Kaiawe and his wife Tuppy, train with the team on Saturday and Sunday, travel back as far as Whangarei on Sunday night, and finish the journey home on Monday.

Distant cousinsKeanu’s grandfather Guy Wainohu, also a paddler, later discovered that he and Tuppy Kaiawe were distant cousins, which seemed natural as she and Danny treated Keanu like family.

Danny said that Keanu was recruited after one of the paddlers “didn’t meet team protocols” and was dropped.

“I told the boys to go shopping, and they came back with Keanu, because he came fifth in the one-man race,” Danny said.

“I met his parents and they gave their OK. His mother organised the travel and we said, ‘Come up any time you want’.”

All this effort and training culminated in success for both teams at Lake Kawana on the Sunshine Coast last week.

The teams combined for the J16 12-man double-hulled 500 metres and won gold in the club world championships, held in conjunction with the elite competition.

They then qualified as the two fastest teams for the final of the J16 six-man 1000m race with turns. They cleared out from the rest of the field and raced the last 250-metre stretch of the four-leg course side by side.

At the finish line, Darius’s Waitakere crew, Push to the Max, beat Keanu’s Fat Oysters by three-quarters of a second.

Two tenths of a second in itA day later, in the J16 six-man 500m, the finish was even closer. An Australian team won in a time of 2 minutes 01.07 seconds; Push to the Max were second in 2:01.10 and Fat Oysters were third in 2:01.27. The difference from first to third was 0.2, or two tenths, of a second.

Darius is the son of Cameron and Alana Nepe and Keanu is the son of Deon Kemp and Sharni Wainohu.

Keanu’s sister Gaibreill, 13, was also a multiple medal winner. As a member of the New Zealand elite women’s V12 crew for the double-hulled 500m, she won gold. In the club world champs, paddling with a Horouta J16 V6 crew, she won silver in the 1000m with turns and gold in the 500m; in a composite J16 V12 crew, she won silver in the double-hulled 500m; and in the J16 V1 500m, she won bronze.

Darius and Keanu have paddled together in the past, at intermediate level, and at Gisborne Boys’ High School also played in the same rugby team.

Sporting prowess is in the genes. Sonny and Desiree Rutene are great grandparents . . . Te Karaka-based Sonny Rutene played first five-eighth for the Poverty Bay rugby team in the mid-1960s.

And Guy Wainohu, grandfather of Keanu and Gaibreille, played on the wing for Poverty Bay against the 1981 Springboks.

The line shows no sign of weakening.