They could well end up becoming new crew mates on the national stage, but kayakers Aiden Nossiter and Toby Brooke were in tight competition at the Whanganui River Challenge on Saturday afternoon.
There were around 52 entries for the three different class races, starting in the morning with the 4km'Dash for Cash', with several athletes pulling double or triple duty in the Whanganui Multisport Club event.
While he took out the ominously named 'Submarine' K4 boat for the dash for cash, Nossiter and his Wanganui-Waitara connection crew with Tim Rowe, Tom Coll and Gregor Park were comfortable winners of the 'Dash for Cash', even racing in a much older craft than they were used to.
Completing two laps of a 2km course from Kowhai Park upstream to around the Dublin St bridge, the crew were headed by the other two teams, with the Girls Under 18 crew coming second.
Nossiter would then switch to K1 racing, alongside 35-38 other craft taking part in the simultaneous 4km and 13km races, which brought the NZ Under 23 rep against Brooke, the 2014 NZ Junior competitor.
They raced under Dublin St Bridge and then up to the Railway Bridge, before looping back downstream and coming to City Bridge, past the spectators at the River Traders Market, and reaching the finishing line shortly afterwards.
Nossiter and Coll were chasing hard but Brooke had the edge on the group of three.
With Nossiter's regular New Zealand partner Max Brown away attending Victoria University and having quickly formed a successful partnership with Mana's Kurtis Imrie, Nossiter may well form a K2 combination with Brooke after both were part of K4 crews at their respective world championships in Hungary in July.
The fun race for the River Challenge was the 200m 'Plastic Fantastic', which brought in an interesting fleet of four two-person row boats, two three-person crews, and two individual kayaks.
Some craft looked like they had a bit of character, read old, but they all proved seaworthy and when it was said and done, 14-year-old Liam Lace took the 'Wavehopper' K1 craft to victory.
Next for the multisport club will be the first race of the Aquathon Summer Series on November 18, followed by the 5 One 5 Triathlon on Nov 22.
