THE Poverty Bay sprint kayaking team dominated Blue Lake 2, the first of a series of selection trials for Oceania and world championships.
By the end of the Blue Lake regatta, Poverty Bay Kayak Club paddlers had won 21 gold, six silver and 11 bronze medals, and were ranked No.1 club.
Blue Lake 2 also served as a benchmark for individuals’ progress towards the 2016 national championships.
With the exception of open competitor Darryl Fitzgerald, returning to New Zealand briefly from training in Australia, the results all came from junior and under-23 paddlers competing across grades from u12 up to open.
Alicia Hoskin in the u16 division and Quaid Thompson in the u18s were dominant. Both were unbeaten in their individual K1 age-group events. Hoskin won the K1 500 metres and 200m, and Thompson won the K1 1000m and 200m, and was a finalist in the open men’s K1 1000m.
They were also in team boats in other age groups.
Britney Ford took a standout win in the u23 K1 500m and would have staked an early claim for a spot in the New Zealand team for the world junior championships in Belarus.
Other individuals to claim individual wins were Sam Ferkins, who rounded out a solid regatta by winning the u14 K1 5000m, and Jordan McLarin, who won the u16 men’s K1 500m and K1 5000m.
Historically dominantPoverty Bay have historically been dominant in the team boats, with many paddlers competing in higher age groups as well as their own, and sometimes two age groups up.
It is a testament to the time and effort put in by coaches Liz and Alan Thompson and Gergely Gyertyános that the team boat performances are often greater than the sum of the parts.
This was never more evident than in the open women’s K4, where Kim Thompson (u23), Ford (u23), Courtney Hoskin (u18) and Danielle Currie (u23) combined to beat the more favoured North Shore crew in the K4 500m.
To show this was no fluke, they did it again in the K4 200m with Jaime Gedye (u18) moving in for Hoskin.
Across the u16 and u18 grades it was largely a Poverty Bay benefit. In the u16 girls, Alicia Hoskin and Alex Birmingham combined to win the K1 500m, then teamed up with Jordan Robertson and Brooke Gedye to win the K4 200m and 500m.
Not to be outdone by the girls, the u16 boys’ K4 crew of Ben Bristow, McLarin, Toby Sutton and Sam Ferkins won both their 200m and 500m races.
The u18 boys didn’t leave any crumbs for the other teams, recording a string of wins across all race distances and disciplines.
Thompson and Zac Ferkins were unrelenting in their string of wins in the K2 events (200m and 1000m). They then combined with McLarin and Alex Bristow to win the K4 1000m, and with Bristow and Sutton in the K4 200m.
The sister pairing of Courtney (u18) and Alicia Hoskin (u16) edged the Mana crew for a hard-fought win in the u18 girls’ K2 500m.
The u16 and u18 divisions had the biggest fields. Poverty Bay paddlers won medals across multiple events in multiple age-groups, having had to progress through heats for every race.