Canoe sprint: Paddling regatta attracts top talent

GOLDEN GIRL: Ohope Olympic gold medallist Lisa Carrington will race at the national canoe sprint regatta in Rotorua this weekend. PHOTO/FILE

Olympic gold medallist Lisa Carrington will race in Rotorua this weekend, as national selection goes on the line for elite sprint paddlers.

The weekend will see kayak sprint paddlers from across New Zealand competing on Lake Tikitapu (Blue Lake) for the second national canoe sprint regatta of the season.

Current national squad athletes and young hopefuls compete for national selection during the two-day event.

Rotorua's Alan Davey will be among nearly 200 paddlers taking part this weekend.

"If anyone wants to come down and have a look it is a good chance to see the Olympic paddlers out there and to see what it is all about," he said.

Davey has just returned to the sport after more than a decade away and will represent the Eastern Bay Canoe Racing Club tomorrow.

"I sort of drifted away a bit and did an OE trip to England and now I'm old enough to race the masters events so I thought I'd give that a go," he said.

There is no canoe racing club in Rotorua, but Whakatane's Eastern Bay Canoe Racing Club and Tauranga's Bay of Plenty Canoe Club will both bring over athletes.

New Zealand golden girl Carrington is coming off some great form this year including winning the World Championship K1 200m title in Duisburg, Germany, in September along with a bronze in the K1 500m.

The Ohope paddler also received the title of Maori Sports Person of the Year for the second year in a row recently.

She can be seen racing in the WK1 200m final event at 9.30am on Sunday and the WK1 500m event starting at 10.50am tomorrow.

Fellow Olympians Darryl Fitzgerald and Ben Fouhy will also be racing K1 events and team events.

Some of New Zealand's young up-and-comers are also worth watching following their recent form at the Junior World Championships in Canada in August.

Aimee Fisher and Kim Thompson, daughter of Olympian Alan Thompson, gained the first New Zealand medal in the history of the competition, a bronze in the K2 500m.

The pair will be paddling together in the same event during the weekend.

Racing begins at 8am on both days. This event is the second of three national canoe sprint regattas on Lake Tikitapu each season. The biggest of the three will be held in February.

A full race programme can be viewed on www.canoeracing.org.nz/home-1/events.