The New Zealand Masters Women's R4 Rafting team - front right, Kylie Laxton-Blinkhorn, front left, Marnie Fornusek, back right, Alana Whiteman and back left, Denise Martin. PHOTO/SUPPLIED
The New Zealand Masters Women's R4 Rafting team - front right, Kylie Laxton-Blinkhorn, front left, Marnie Fornusek, back right, Alana Whiteman and back left, Denise Martin. PHOTO/SUPPLIED
The world-champion New Zealand Masters Women's R4 Rafting team's roots are entrenched in the Rotorua community with all four members from the local area.
The team of captain Denise Martin, Alana Whiteman, Marnie Fornusek, and Kylie Laxton-Blinkhorn recently returned as champions in their field from the 2016 Rafting World Championships in the United Arab Emirates.
The quartet, who mainly train on the Kaituna River, qualified for the event after winning the National Masters in Auckland earlier this year as the Okere Masters Women's Rafting Team with local Miriam Odlin in the place of Fornusek.
They fought off 84 international opposition, including fierce competitors Norway and Japan, to take home the overall gold medal in Al Ain, Abu Dhabi in November.
The New Zealand Masters Women's R4 Rafting team from left, Marnie Fornusek, Kylie Laxton-Blinkhorn, team physio Heidi Verhaggen, Denise Martin and Alana Whiteman top the podium. PHOTO/SUPPLIED
Martin was "over the moon" with the result and said team tactics played a significant part.
"Our whole team were super happy to have won the overall title," she said. "We had to compete against very strong teams but our experience in the sport really paid off come crunch time.
"For the final race we spent a lot of time discussing tactics. We decided we would try to lead from the start and stay there for the downriver, and this is exactly how the race went.
"We are a bunch of Kiwi girls who have been in this sport for a long time. With tons of experience and keen race heads we managed to deliver when it really mattered."
The New Zealand Masters Women's R4 Rafting team celebrate victory in the water at the 2016 Rafting World Championships in the United Arab Emirates. PHOTO/SUPLLIED
Martin, Whiteman and Laxton-Blinkhorn have been together since February with Fornusek stepping in to replace Odlin in September.
Laxton-Blinkhorn is the newcomer to rafting, although she has 20 years' experience in white water kayaking.
"I've enjoyed the training," said Laxton-Blinkhorn. "It's challenging and I've certainly had a steep learning curve, but it's going well.
"We are all quite experienced - we've all been on rivers for 20 years or more and travelled around the world."
The team's most recent win caps off a hugely successful year with them also winning at the world cup event in Yushu in the Tibetan Autonomous Region of China, where they won the head-to-head and slalom races, that includes down and upstream gates.
But individually the team are no strangers to success with Whiteman and Odlin part of the New Zealand team that won last year's world title, while team captain Martin holds a Guinness World Record for having the most consecutive wins in World Rafting Championships.
Martin, who started rafting in 1995, played down her impressive feat.
"I've just always loved the water and this sport was the perfect fit for me from the off," she said. "It's super fun and I don't really think about the titles I've picked up on the way.
"Of course it's great to get them but I always have a good time whatever happens in this sport."
For the future the team are focusing on the South Island R6 selections in March with the winning teams heading to Japan to compete at the 2017 World Rafting Championships.
"It's a great target to be aiming at now and Rotorua provides the perfect training ground for us," Martin said. "Also this area has a strong waka ama community and waka ama transfers quite readily. We all do waka ama as part of our training - i think it gives us a good edge."
