Jan Blythe has become the first MOCC member to win a gold medal in singles at Sprint Nationals. She destroyed the field by more than 3 seconds to win the Master Womens 75 category in great style. Not content with that achievement she took two silvers in the Master Womens 70 W6 events paddling with Ngā Ruahine from Hawaikinui Tararua club in Porirua. The crew also won 2 golds in Master Womens 75 W6 racing (Jan only raced in the 70’s division). Lynette Campbell won Silver in the Masters Women 75 W6 racing paddling for Aratika.
Her success is the result of a lot (and I mean a LOT) of hard work on and off the water leading up to the event. Jan wanted to thank everyone cheering her on at home, the paddlers who came out with her and shared her workouts, Tegan Gordon her conditioning coach at MickiD’s gym and her coach Paul Fidlow from Christchurch. She’s going to need a bigger mantlepiece.
We had other paddlers at Nationals. Lynette paddled with Aratika in Master Womens 75 W6, Zoe and Mars paddled with Whakatu Marae and made both Master women’s W6 finals and Hine Tahi (Senior Master women), our sole club crew representatives, made the semis of the 1000m and the final of the 500m. Special mention to Fi Lankshear who did great work on her first steering job at Nationals.
Its never too early or too late to start paddling waka ama
We always welcome new members to the Maitahi Outrigger Canoe Club.
We have social and racing waka ama crews catering for a wide variety of ages and abilities.