Canoe Racing: Wanganui teen trio off to world champs

Max Brown (left), Toby Brooke and Aiden Nossiter will be at the 2014 Under-23 and Junior World Championships in Hungary. Photo/Stuart Munro

They've told him all the stories about the 40 degree heat and even hotter young women, but mainly they're on his case about training hard and winning medals.

For Wanganui's Max Brown, 19, and Aiden Nossiter, 18, the next few months will be old hat as they will be going back to the Czech Republic for four weeks training with their New Zealand Under-23 Sprint K4 team ahead of the 2014 U23 and Junior World Championships in Szeged, Hungary, starting July 17. "Kayaking for Hungary is like rugby for New Zealand," said Brown.

However, joining them for his first European excursion is Canoe Racing NZ's Junior Athlete of the Year Toby Brooke, 17, who will follow in their footsteps as part of the NZ Junior (under-18) Sprint K4 crew. Brooke's selection alongside Kurtis Imrie (Wellington), Taris Harker (Tauranga) and Quaid Thompson (Gisborne) was confirmed back in March, but the experienced Brown and Nossiter had to wait until last week to find out they would be joining Alex Fort (Canterbury) and Ben Tinelly (Otago) in the U23 craft.

While the pair had a lot of success as an U18 crew in 2013 winning at the Czech nationals and coming 14th in the world their ascension to the U23 boat was not assured.

"It was a big trial for it, we had a trial at our nationals but Aiden had a broken wrist, but had done well at previous regattas," Brown said.

"I was still pretty happy to make the team because I had about three months off," Nossiter added.

Brooke's elevation is of no surprise to his older teammates, who have watched him win the national Under-18 K2 1000m title with Wanganui teammate Lachie Cromar in February, while noting he picked three K1 victories in the U16 grade at the Oceania Championships in Australia last year.

Brown had privately told the Wanganui Chronicle that Brooke was the next big thing last November at the 2013 Ray White Wanganui Sports Awards evening, while Nossiter joked they had taken the tall teenager under their wing.

"We push you all the time," he smiled at Brooke. Joking aside, Brooke wants to make these next two seasons he can compete in the NZ under-18 grade work for him.

"It's pretty exciting. I've got two years to go focus on K1, hopefully go for a medal."

The three teenagers continue to train together under coach Brian Scott in Wanganui, and will have one more weekend camp with their teammates before heading overseas.

Brown said this involved at least 11 training sessions a week, about twice a day with one day off, or 130km out on the water. "In a year, we cover the length of New Zealand twice."

They are also hopeful of being among the first recipients of grants from the Wanganui Future Champions Trust, which closed for its inaugural round of applications on Wednesday.