Whanganui kayakers claim multiple medals at Asia Pacific regatta

Sophie Brooke, back left, Jack Clifton, Lucas Thompson and Liam Lace held their own at the inaugural Asia Pacific Sprint Kayak Regatta in Adelaide on May 12-13.

Three of Whanganui's young paddlers earned K4 gold medals as their New Zealand Junior and Under 21 squad just missed out on lifting the Asia Pacific Sprint Cup at the canoe sprint regatta in Adelaide this month.

Sophie Brooke, Lucas Thompson, Liam Lace and Jack Clifton had all been selected in the New Zealand squads to compete at the new international regatta against representatives from five other countries.

In total, New Zealand won 16 gold medals from the 48 events, second only to the Australians who claimed 22.

Whanganui coach Brian Scott said the Kiwis also won a host of silver medals, many of them only tenths of a second behind the gold medallists.

"All four Whanganui paddlers contributed to the [overall] New Zealand points, which in the end was not enough to take the Asia Pacific Cup from the Australians.

"Although the regatta ended in fine style, a blast from the Antarctic with accompanying strong winds provided challenging conditions on the first day with the organisers deeming it was unsafe to run the event until the weather settled."

Once underway, Lace and Clifton were part of the NZ Under 18 K4 crew, who delivered a shock to the favoured Australian K4 team in the 1000m by running them down to take the gold medal in a tight finish.

"This set up a series of K4 wins by other New Zealand crews, which must have served as a scare to the Australian team and highlighted the improvements the young Kiwis have been making in the age group divisions," said Scott.

In the shorter 500m event, the Australian Under 18's changed a member of their crew, substituting an endurance paddler for a sprinter, and it paid off as the Lace, Clifton and their crewmates could not drag the home team back from their fast start, having to settle for silver.

Clifton went on to the K2 events and teamed up with a Christchurch paddler, claiming silver in both the 500m and 1000m.

"Jack's team mate had to complete an Under 21 race moments before their race, which would almost certainly have had an effect on the results given the closeness of the racing," said Scott.

Brooke was in the New Zealand K4 crew for the Under 16 Girls races, and they went out to win the gold medal in the 200m event.

However, both of the Australian Under 16 crews came back in the 500m race, getting a 1-2 finish ahead of the Kiwis, who settled for bronze by just milliseconds.

"The Australians showed how important their Surf Lifesaving programmes were as a feeder system to creating depth in their sprint kayak program," said Scott.

Thompson finished outside the medals, with his best effort being in the K2 1000m, where the New Zealand crew finished fourth.

Clifton and Lace will now go onto the ICF Canoe Sprint Junior World Championships, being held in Bulgaria in July.

Clifton will be with the same Christchurch partner in the Under 18 K2 event, and they will join Lace and a Gisborne paddler to race in the K4.