Following in father’s paddlestrokes

Quaid Thompson and his father, 1984 Olympic champion and seven-time K1 1000-metre national titleholder Alan, after Quaid won the K1 1000m crown at the New Zealand Canoe Sprint Championships at Lake Karapiro on Saturday. Picture by Jamie Troughton/Dscribe Media

Quaid Thompson is a few behind his father but he will never forget his first K1 1000-metre national kayaking title.

The Gisborne 20-year-old took out the blue-ribbon race at the NZCT New Zealand Canoe Sprint Championships at Lake Karapiro on Saturday. It was his first open title over that distance.

Dad Alan, 58, amassed a tidy collection; the 1984 Olympic champion picked up seven national titles in his illustrious career, although he was 21 by the time he collected his first in 1981. He won the national K1 1000m title from 1981 to 1986, and again in 1994.

Alan Thompson coaches his son at the Poverty Bay Kayak Club, with Quaid delighted to keep up the family tradition.

“I was a bit flat after last year’s nationals (where he finished third) but after going to Europe last year, I came back knowing exactly what I needed to do,” Quaid Thompson said.

“I’ve been happy with how I’ve been going over summer and I’ve managed to get in some really hard training over the past two months, so it was nice to be able to peak properly for an event and come away with a win.”

His victory this year came in three minutes 42.02 seconds, nearly four seconds clear of Whanganui’s Max Brown, with Kurtis Imrie (Mana) third in 3:46.71.

Comfortably cruising through his heats and semifinal, Thompson edged out early in the final on a stunning Karapiro afternoon, keeping his cadence high and his nose in front.

Imrie and Brown got some revenge later in the day, however, coming from behind to win the K2 1000m, just 0.40 of a second ahead of Thompson and his Poverty Bay teammate Jordan McLarin.

In the feature women’s race of the day, Lisa Carrington edged out her world champion K2 teammate Caitlin Ryan in a thrilling K1 500m final.

Carrington clocked 1:49.78 and Ryan, after leading for the first half of the race, finished in 1:50.25.

French Olympian Sarah Guyot was third in 1:55.25, just in front of Hawke’s Bay’s Aimee Fisher in 1:55.22.

The three-day championships finished yesterday.

Thompson won the event-ending open men’s K1 5km.

That day he had already finished third in the K1 500m in 1:47.80, 3.60s behind winner Kurtis Imrie, of Mana Kayak Racing Club, and 1.80s behind runner-up Ashton Reiser, of North Shore Canoe Club. Fellow Poverty Bay paddler Zach Ferkins finished fifth.

In the feature women’s race of the final day, world champions Carrington and Ryan, of Eastern Bay Canoe Racing Club, won the K2 500m in 1:40.32, nearly five seconds ahead of runners-up Kayla Imrie and Danielle Watson, of Mana.