Top juniors face off at Blue Lake

A handful of New Zealand's top junior kayakers will get their chance to shine on the open stage at Canoe Racing New Zealand's first Blue Lake Regatta of the season in Rotorua this weekend.

With most of the senior high performance athletes still having a break after August's successful world championship, this weekend's focus will be on the under-23 athletes coming through.

North Shore's Briar McLeely and Rebecca Cole and Poverty Bay's Kim Thompson were part of the women's K4 that finished ninth at the under-23 world championship in Portugal in July and will all line up in both the open K1 200m and 500m races this weekend.

Hawke's Bay's Elise Legarth and Poverty Bay's Britney Ford, part of the under-18 K4 at the world champs, will also make the step up to the open division.

Double world champion Lisa Carrington and the Olympic-qualified K4 of Jaimee Lovett, Caitlin Ryan, Aimee Fisher and Kayla Imprie are among those sitting this weekend out, targeting December's second Blue Lake Regatta for their season-opener.

That is also the case in the men's ranks, with only national K1 200m champion Scott Bicknell flying the senior flag this weekend. He is racing the K1 1000m today and will go head-to-head with top under-23 paddlers Jamie Banhidi, Andrew Roy and William Wilkins in Sunday's shorter race.

Wanganui's Max Brown and Toby Brooke will also step up, with Brooke having finished second in the under-18 K1 1000m B final at the junior world championships, earning a ranking of 10th in the world.

The two-day NZCT-sponsored regatta has attracted 179 paddlers from all over New Zealand, up from 159 last year, from novice and under-14 ranks through to masters.

Racing starts at Tikitapu (Blue Lake) at 8.30am today.