They just about had to be helped out of their boats afterwards but the young members of the Whanganui Kayak Club gave it everything in the team races at the CRNZ National championships at Lake Karapiro over the weekend.
The crew of Toby Brooke, Aiden Nossiter, Max Brown and TimRowe paddled hard in the Open Men's K4 500m final, finishing second against the top New Zealand men's teams.
"Brooke and Rowe then exited one boat to immediately jump into the K2," said club member Lisa Chase.
"With a 15-minute turnaround between races the gutsy Under-18, K2 1000m pair dug deep to come second. The whole Whanganui team [were] on their feet, cheering them on for this epic effort."
On day two on Saturday at the lake, which had choppy water with wind, the club's Masters crew got proceedings off the right way with a gold medal in the Masters K4 500m final.
Coaches Brian Scott, Barry Hurley, Peter Brown and Hungarian coach Gabor Szabo would head off the Mana club by one second. Later they came back and won the 200m, beating Eastern Bay of Plenty by just 0.09 of a second after a mid-race hiccup nearly saw the crew exit their kayak.
The club's Under-18 K4 crew of Erica Tanner, Emma Conley, Abby Hurley and Sapere Simon finished third in the 500m final with only 0.8s keeping them from silver. Ben Foster did well at his first nationals, coming second in the Novice Men 500m.
In other results, Brooke and Rowe were also second in the U18 K2 200m final, while Cambell Tanner and Regan Davey were runners-up in the Under-16 version. Tanner and Davey were joined by Liam Lace and James Rowe to come second in the Under-16 Men's K4 500m against Poverty Bay, while the women's Under-18 K4 500m saw Erica Tanner, Conley, Hurley and Simon also come second.
Lucas Thompson and Jack Clifton got third in the Under-14 Men's K2 500m.
In the Master's Women K2 500m, Whanganui earned a second through Robyn Scott and Chase, with Kylie Gibson and Amie Simpson third. The K1 saw Scott get another silver and Gibson bronze.
The final races were 5km events, which Chase called a battle of attrition after a tough weekend. Whanganui had several podiums, including Robyn Scott [Masters] and Regan Davey [U16 Men].
Club committee member Peter Brown said the nationals were an excellent springboard for Brown, Brooke, Nossiter and Erica Tanner before they left to represent NZ at the Australian GP2 in Sydney this week.
