Tough calls for coaches come with the territory

TEAM GOLD: Horouta’s Puhi Kaiariki J16 women won gold in the V6 500m. They are (from left): Gaibreill Wainohu, Teaorangi Kemp, Jessica Terekia, Manutangirua Potaka, Kelsey Teneti and (front) Tereana Ihakara (holding the Maori flag). For the V6 1000m, Shania Lee came in for Ihakara. For the V12 500m, these seven paddlers were joined by Mateora (Choc) Rewiri, Mikaylah Tamati, Pounamu-nui-a-Te Waimarama Noviskey-Wharehinga, Taley-Jade Kemp and Willow Taylor. Chelsea Haami-Heron was reserve. Picture supplied

THE road to gold is paved with tough decisions. Horouta Junior 16 women’s waka ama coach Sharni Wainohu knows that only too well.

Her Puhi Kaiariki team won gold in the V6 500 metres at the waka ama world sprint championships in Australia last month.

The same team — bar one crew member — won silver in the V6 1000m, racing as Puhi Kaimoana, and all but one of the 13-strong squad got a silver medal racing as Puhi Manawahine in the V12 500m.

Leading up to the national sprint championships at Lake Karapiro in January, Sharni Wainohu and co-coach Vesna Radonich had three teams of six paddlers with varying hopes of qualifying for the May world champs in Australia.

Two six-person teams qualified in different races — the 1000 metres (with three turns) and the 500m. But they were near the bottom of the qualifying group in each race.

They had just over three months to make big improvements.

With Vesna Radonich committed to training in Kiwi Campbell’s elite women’s squad (with whom she won three gold medals), Sharni Wainohu became sole coach of the J16 team.

One of her first hard calls was deciding who would be cut from the 18-strong squad to bring it to 13.

All live locallyOn top of that, Wainohu was convinced that for the team to have a chance at the worlds, all squad members should live in the Gisborne district so they could meet the training demands.

Consequently, she told two out-of-town paddlers — from Auckland and Palmerston North — they would not be needed.

Then at short notice she had to replace two of her stronger paddlers, and she was thrilled that the Auckland paddler, Tereana Ihakara, jumped at the chance to rejoin the squad.

“Tereana ended up spending her last four lots of school holidays with an aunty in Gisborne,” Wainohu said.

“She came in as our captain. She’s involved in kapa haka, and while we were in Australia she did her own little programme for Maori TV.”

The main task in the lead-up to the worlds was building the girls’ belief in themselves, but they needed to buy in to the programme, Wainohu said.

“I was amazed at their growth, and their dedication to training. These are teenage girls giving up their weekends, holidays, family time to win gold. When they did it, I was ecstatic for them.”

Two of the team, her daughter Gaibreill and Kelsey Teneti, are only 13.

Three others — Jessica Terekia, Teaorangi Kemp and Manutangirua Potaka — will be in the next age-group when the 2018 world champs in Tahiti come around.

Grateful for Kiwi's inputIt was good to give them a gold-medal send-off from the grade, Wainohu said. She was grateful for the input of Kiwi Campbell.

“We’ve been best friends since we were five, and I appreciated her running some of the sessions. I knew the girls looked up to her, and it gave them a boost that she would come in and help.”

Horouta club president Walton Walker said the “out of the ashes” performance of the J16s was one of the highlights of the world championships for him.

“The decision by Sharni to use her strongest paddlers in the W6 500m and 1000m events, when qualification came from two different teams, exhibited courage and maturity,” Walker said.

“It was a decision made in the interests of the team and the club rather than individual paddlers. The success was shared by everyone — the team and other club members at the event — and I can’t recall a time when Horouta club members have got so excited about winning a medal.”