While not quite international travel, the NZ men’s kayak team are overseas this week – across the Cook Strait for a week of training followed by the inaugural Summer Super Sprint event at Lake Hood in Ashburton.
The squad are looking forward to a week away from their home base at Lake Karapiro, which will include a visit to Arawa Canoe club in Christchurch to see where team member Ben Duffy developed his paddling roots.
“The whole team are excited for a great week ahead.” said CRNZ Mens Coach Tim Brabants. “The majority of the team has been unable to travel overseas for the U23 or open World Championships for the last couple of years, so this is the first opportunity we have had to get away together.”
“The purpose of the camp is around a short but focused block of training and team building. The South Island sprint regatta at the end of the week is another great start line opportunity to continue to develop racing skills as we head into the selection period of the year.”
It will be exciting racing when the men line up on the start line at Lake Hood, as showcased by the close, competitive racing seen at the Blue Lake 2 regatta in December last year.
At that event, Zac Ferkins took out the K1 200m, Ben Duffy won the K1 500m and Ben McCullum reigned supreme in the K1 1000m, and bragging rights will be on the line again on the 19th February.
Due to the imposition of the red covid setting in late January, the Summer Super Sprint regatta structure had to be revised to a one day and the location moved from Twizel to Lake Hood. CRNZ event manager Karen Simpson has been working round the clock and is pleased to be going ahead, as many other sporting events around the country are being cancelled and postponed.
“We are looking forward to having a new, nationwide event in the South Island, and are excited for this to become a permanent fixture in the CRNZ event calendar.” said Karen.
“This one has been tricky as we lost our booking in Twizel due to Rowing moving their nationals. We’re grateful the team at Ashburton Rowing and the Lake Hood Committee have been so helpful in making this possible. We’ve only ever used Lake Hood for marathon racing so it will be great to give it a go for a sprint event.”
Vaccine Passports will be required for all attending aged 12 and over (participants and supporters). Passports will be checked and ID required at the event. For full event details, check out https://www.canoeracing.org.nz/events/summer-super-sprint/
The Cambridge CRNZ mens HP squad will be documenting the camp on their Instagram account @NZ_menskayak
