This evening, Canoe Racing New Zealand held their annual Sports & Recognition Awards to acknowledge and celebrate a few special individuals who have performed and contributed to the sport at an exceptional level during the 2022 calendar year.
CRNZ would like to recognise and congratulate the following award recipients:
Ian Ferguson Cup for 2022 Canoe Sprint Athlete of the Year – Lisa Carrington (Eastern Bay Canoe Racing Club)
At the World Championships in Canada, Lisa won gold in the K1 500m and K1 200m events, bringing her tally of open world championship gold medals to 11, including a whooping 8th consecutive K1200 title. Alongside her teammates, she also finished 4th place in both the K2 and k4 events.
In the world cup events leading up, Lisa won 3 gold medals, a silver in the K4 alongside Alicia Hoskin, Olivia Brett and Tara Vaughan as well as a Bronze in the K2 500m with Alicia Hoskin.
2022 Marathon Athlete of the Year- Liam Lace (Whanganui Kayak and Multisport Club)
In 2022 Liam backed up his maiden win from 2021 to retain both the open and U23 New Zealand K1 Marathon titles.
At the ICF Marathon World Championships in Portugal, he unfortunately suffered equipment failure in his favoured U23 race, but bounced back to finish 19th overall in the Open Mens Long course, an incredibly respectful result considering his age and relatively short marathon career so far. His enthusiasm and commitment to marathon paddling is infectious and we look forward to seeing him in the coming years.
2022 Ocean surfski Athlete of the Year- Danielle McKenzie
Danielle McKenzie has been a dominant force in ocean ski racing since she first entered the discipline and won the 2019 World Championship. In 2022, as international races and traveling returned, Danielle claimed victory in many of the major international ocean ski races, including The Perth Doctor, Western Australia race week, the Gorge Downwind Champs and The 20 Beaches.
At the Ocean Racing World Championships in Portugal, Danielle won the silver medal, which is only more impressive when you know that only 3 days earlier she was racing at the Surf lifesaving World Champs where she won gold in the SLS ski event.
Lisa Carrington Cup for 2022 Junior Athlete of the Year- Greer Morley (North Shore Canoe Club)
Taking this award home for the 2nd year in a row, Greer had another impressive year. At the 2022 Canoe Sprint Nationals, Greer won 6 medals, 3 of them gold including the U18 K1 200 and U18 K1 500. The other 4 were in open events, which is amazing given she was still just 17years old.
Greer represented NZ at the junior world championships in Hungary where she finished 14th in the WK1 500m and 10th in the K4 500m alongside Sophia Lawson, Madison Garrett and Natasha MacGibbon
MacDonald/Thompson/Ferguson/Bramwell Cup for 2022 Team of the Year– Lisa Carrington, Alicia Hoskin, Olivia Brett, Tara Vaughan
The NZ womens K4 team won a World Cup silver medal in Poznan, as well as finishing 4th in World Cup 1 and 5th in the World Championships. This is a new K4 crew combination following the Tokyo Olympics, and for newest crew members Olivia and Tara, this was just their first season of international racing.
Brett Leask Cup for 2022 Masters Athlete of the Year – Kingi Gilbert (North Shore Canoe Club)
In 2022, Kingi was the dominant K1 masters paddler, winning gold in both the MK1 200 and MK1 1000 for the 45-55 age group. He was also part of the NSCC K4 team that claimed the bronze medal.
Gordon Walker Cup for 2022 Coach of the Year- Dylan Neal-Hill (Arawa Canoe Club)
Dylan has been exceptional for Arawa Canoe Club. He is the face of the club for most of their juniors, coaching 30-40 paddlers per week in his sprint squads and with beginner groups just starting out paddling. For all these groups, it is Dylan’s energy and enthusiasm for the sport, the rapport he builds with them as well as his dedication to helping them develop that has resulted in a growing core of happy paddlers.
Many of these young paddlers are also achieving superb results, with 9 different paddlers claiming medals at the 2022 Sprint Nationals, and four Under16 paddlers being selected into the CRNZ pathway programme.
Dylan’s work and commitment has gone beyond Arawa, having been selected as one of the CRNZ coaches for the NZ 2023 Asia Pacific team.
Don Cooper Cup for 2022 Official of the Year- Craig Hoskin
Since becoming a qualified NZ Official in 2015 following his daughters’ involvement in the sport, Craig made immeasurable contributions to our sport. He progressed quickly to an International Official and now sits on the Officials Committee which makes recommendations and decisions around domestic events.
In 2022, Craig performed the role of Chief Official at our NZ Sprint events, he officiated at ICF World Cups 1 and 2 in Hungary and Czech and at the Asia Pacific Sprint Cup in Japan.
Craig’s positivity, enthusiasm and humour, coupled with his high standard of officiating excellence, make him an extremely valuable member of the Officials.
Dennis Rae Trophy for 2022 Volunteer of the Year- Scott Orman
This award is for someone who exemplifies the spirit of volunteering, commitment to the development of the sport, and is a selfless proponent of the sport. Scott does this to the max.
Not only is Scott Orman an ER doctor at one of New Zealand’s busiest hospitals, he has also become one of the biggest driving forces in getting kids out paddling in Auckland.
In 2020, when clubs were unable to run group paddling sessions due to covid restrictions, Scott started taking his own son and his son’s friend paddling at Takapuna Boating Club. When it was safe to do so, he began recruiting more kids, and has now built it up to two large groups totalling over 30kids, taking them paddling regularly and bringing their parents along too, often after a few hours of snatched sleep after night shifts.
In 2022, Scott took many of these kids to their first sprint events, and at the Aims Games in September where his paddlers took home 7 out of 12 medals available.
His paddlers now also often paddle at North Shore Canoe club in K1s as they look to continue to explore sprint paddling and Scott is an Integral part growing the connections between Takapuna and North Shore with the two clubs now working together to encourage and provide opportunities for all kids to try both flatwater and ocean paddling. The enthusiasm, energy and effort Scott brings has massively boosted junior paddling and the opportunities available for kids to get involved in Auckland.
Rod Gavin Cup for 2022 Club of the Year- Bay of Plenty Paddle Sports
In 2020, Bay of Plenty embarked on a new strategy to reboot their club to become a “modern day Paddle Sports club”.
The club renamed and rebranded to Bay of Plenty Paddle Sports, recognising their focus on an inclusion of all kayaking disciplines, not just flatwater sprint. They have members who regularly paddle sprint, ocean ski and marathon paddling. One area of growth has come from targeting multisport paddlers, offering technique and training sessions for kayakers focusing on events such as coast to coast.
The other main growth area has been due to a focus on juniors and introducing new kids to the sport, and retaining them through creating a fun and friendly environment where they can thrive.
The club shifted to the more user-friendly Wairoa river, sharing facilities with the rowing club which has made paddling much more enjoyable and accessible to a range of paddlers.
As a result of the vision and hard work of their committee and members, membership has quadrupled from 25 to over 100 members, and the club is a hive of activity for all ages, abilities and craft.
Club President Chris Emmett would like to recognise everyone who has been involved in this effort, specifically Stephen Brown, Michelle Wooster and their club sponsor- Body in Motion.
EXCELLENCE AWARDS- These are awarded for exceptional level of achievement or contribution to the sport.
Lisa Carrington in recognition of outstanding achievement in gaining Gold Medals in the K1 200m and 500m at the 2022 ICF Canoe Sprint World Championships in Canada.
Scott Martlew in recognition of outstanding achievement in gaining a Bronze Medal in the KL2 200m at the 2022 ICF Canoe Sprint World Championships in Canada
Matt Warren in recognition of outstanding achievement in officiating at the 2022 ICF Canoe Sprint World Championships in Canada
Karen Simpson-Warren in recognition of outstanding achievement in officiating at the 2022 ICF Canoe Sprint Junior World Championships in Hungary
Alison Harris in recognition of outstanding achievement in officiating at the 2022 ICF Canoe Sprint World Championships in Canada
Terry Newsome in recognition of outstanding achievement in officiating at the 2022 Canoe Marathon Championships held in Portugal.
Gordon Walker in recognition of outstanding achievement in Coaching 2022
Nathan Luce in recognition of outstanding achievement in Coaching 2022
Leigh Barker in recognition of outstanding achievement in coaching 2022
Service Awards – Recognising more than 10 years of voluntary service to the sport.
Kirsty Elmiger in recognition of outstanding contribution to the sport of Canoe Racing in New Zealand
Kirsty Elmiger has been involved in canoe racing through various admin and committee roles of some form or another for over 15 years.
She currently holds administration and secretary roles at North Shore Canoe Club and has done for over 10years, supporting the club membership, programme implementation, supporting the committee and almost everything else that goes on to keep a club ticking over.
She has held roles at Canoe Racing NZ and other clubs throughout NZ, serving innumerous hours in dedication to a sport that she loves, always with a smile on her face. Thank you Kirsty for your enthusiasm and dedication.
OFFICIAL PINS IN RECOGNITION OF INTERNATIONAL OFFICIATING
Matt Warren
Terry Newsome
Karen Simpson-Warren
Craig Hoskin
Toni Hoskin
Aniwa MacKenzie
Stu Clark
Congratulations to all of these Award Winners!
