Blue Lake 1 Regatta 

The first sprint regatta on the CRNZ season calendar kicked off at Blue Lake (Lake Tikitapu) in Rotorua on 16-17 October 2010. This event saw paddlers from as young as 9 or 10 entering the "Junior" division (year 8 and below). Other age divisions include U15, U17, U19, Open and Masters and each division saw some outstanding racing and a few upsets.  The Open division included our elite paddlers back from the World Champs held in Poland last month, and some very fast races made for a great weekend for spectators and paddlers alike.

The weather behaved exceptionally well for us with gloriously sunny, calm conditions on Saturday, and on Sunday the rain held off until just at the end of prizegiving.

Junior and U15 Divisions

Young Quaid Thompson from Poverty Bay dominated the mens races taking out first place in all of his K1 and K2 races where he was partnered by Hayden Phelps.  The womens races also saw Poverty Bay dominating with Junior results seeing Britney Ford winning the 200m and 1000m Junior and the 200m U15, Georgia Burke the 500m Junior, Ashleigh Brown the 500m U15 and Burke and Ford winning both K2 races.

U17 Division

Poverty Bay again featured in the U17 mens races with Jarrod Fitzgerald winning both the 200m and the 500m K1, and in fact all three top placings heading Gisbornes way.  Likewise the K2 went to Fitzgerald partnered by Henry Ellingham along with both K4 races with Patrick Looney and Max pepper added to the boat.  A break in the Poverty Bay winning streak saw Julie Sweetman of North Shore placing first in both the 200m and 500m womens finals. The K2 200m and 500m races were both won by the Hawkes Bay crew of Aimee Fisher and Kayla Austin, and they joined Emma Mudgeway and Hannah Altman (Mana) to win both the 200 and 500m K4 events. 

U19 Division

The U19 Divisions were paddling for selection into the U19 squad heading to Australia, and the women showed mixed results in the 200 and 500m races.  An unfortunate break DQ'ed Kayla Imrie, Mana, from the K1 500m final, but saw her going on to win the 200m in a very close finish with Karina Radley of BOP.  The 500m was also a close one with a split second advantage giving Aimee Fisher (Hawkes Bay) first place and Julie Sweetman (North Shore) second. The K2s were a two-horse race with the 200m and 500m going one each way for Hawkes Bay and Bay of Plenty.

The mens races were anyone's guess with a close bunch down the course all the way.  The 200m winner was Andrew Roy, Bay of Plenty, in another split second result with Jamie Banhidi of North Shore right up there with him. The long 1000m race is a tough distance raced at speed and two Arawa brothers, Ryan and Zac Quickenden, respectively took out the top two spots with just a second between them.   They then went on to win the MK2 500m as a team, with Ryan teaming up with Alex Fort to win the K2 200m.  The K4 500m was won by a composite team made up of North Shore, Wanganui and Hawkes Bay clubbies Jamie Banhidi, Shaun Green, Jason Anderson

and Mitch Graham who also placed second in the 200m K4, beaten by the North Shore crew of Matthew Johnson, Shaun Green, Jacob

Lennane-Henry and Jack Wilson by half a second.

Open Division

The Open women’s K1 was always going to be a battle between the two North Shore girls Lisa Carrington and Teneale Hatton who have recently returned from World Champs.  Carrington managed to pip Hatton in both 200 and 500m races to then team up to blast the K2 events.  As they are the first NZ women’s team to make a final at a World Champs, this result was never really in doubt. 

The men’s Olympic 200m distance had everyone on their feet as the top three paddlers screamed to the finish line with less than a second between all three.  This race is always very quick with paddlers of this calibre and it was a tough one to call.  However Steven Ferguson (North Shore) took out first place, followed by Craig Simpkins (Karapiro) and Scott Bicknell (Hawkes Bay).   The 1000m also proved to be a nail-biter with Darryl Fitzgerald narrowly pipping Steven Ferguson at the post to place first.   The K2 200m saw brothers Alan and Steven Ferguson team up, only just missing out on the no.1 spot to William Wilkins and Scott Bicknell.  However Steven put on a good show in the 1000m K2, teaming up with Jasper Bats (paddling for Poverty Bay) to take a first in the longer event.  

Masters Division

Stephen Brown of Bay of Plenty showed he still has what it takes, winning both the K1 200 and 500m finals, closely followed by club mate Hamish Reid.  The two then teamed up to convincingly win both K2 races, so the gauntlet has well and truly been laid for the next Blue Lake regatta.

Results

View full results for all races.

Blue Lake 2

Blue Lake 2 will be held at Lake Tikitapu in Rotorua on 4 and 5 December and entries will be accepted until 5.00pm 19 November 2010. 

Click for Entry Form and Race Programme.  The programme may be subject to change once entries are collated. .