Zack Mutton (Okere Falls) was the top U14 competitor and 10th overall. Photo/Supplied
Zack Mutton (Okere Falls) was the top U14 competitor and 10th overall. Photo/Supplied
The North Island Canoe Slalom championships were held on the Tarawera River in Kawerau over the weekend.
Rotorua C1M canoeist Ben Gibb continued his fine form adding another title to his recent U23 Oceania win.
Junior, Patrick Washer (Tauranga) also had a good race to be just 1.54s behind Gibb,with Tomasz McDowell (Nelson) rounding out the top three. Gibb who lives in Rotorua and trains on the Kaituna will lead the C1 charge for New Zealand at the U23 World Champs in Sydney in April, while Washer is a member of the NZ junior team at the same event.
Massey vet student Malcolm Gibson upset the seedings to win the K1 event. Gibson who is in his fourth year of study has spent his summer holidays training between Rotorua and the artificial course in Penrith, Sydney in preparation for the U23 World Champs to be held in Australasia for the first time next month. Just 0.14s separated Gibson from U18 paddler Callum Gilbert of Tauranga, who last month won the Oceania U18 title and posted a career best at the International Canoe Federation ranking race in Sydney. Jacob Reyland another of the up-and- coming Tauranga juniors rounded out the top three 1.67s from the winner. Young guns Jack Dangen (Tauranga) was 5th overall and top U16 and Zack Mutton (Okere Falls) top U14 and 10th overall.
Canoe Slalom NZ Head Coach, Aaron Osborne, said Gibson's win was reward for all his hard work over the summer. The National Performance Programme was set up a year ago to support athletes who are geographically spread throughout New Zealand. The group has met during the year for training camps in Rotorua, Kawerau, Palmerston North and Australia, with the specific aim of becoming more competitive ahead of the U23 World Championships in Sydney in April.
Olympian Luuka Jones was the fastest of the K1W clocking 100.11 plus a 2s penalty and finished just 1.02s ahead of Ella Nicholas Tauranga's Cook Islands Olympian. Haylee Dangen rounded out the top three on 111.38. Jones made it a double win by blitzing the field in the developing C1W (canoe) class by 11.32 seconds. Dangen 2nd and Kelly Travers (Palmerston North) 3rd.
C1W is not yet an Olympic class but scheduled for inclusion in Tokyo 2020.
Jones , who has just returned from a training camp in Dubai, has a few more weeks here before joining her coach in the UK and the European summer season of racing begins.
