It was a weekend to test the nerves as well as the fitness as Whitianga delivered some difficult conditions at Long Distance Nationals. But the challenging water didn’t stop a hardy bunch of club members from picking up medals.
Glenn Hardinge was the only paddler to be representing MOCC. His endless hours of training were rewarded with a bronze medal in the Golden Masters OC1, behind gold medallist Grant Barriball who also took out the V1 title earlier in the day. The silver medallist was taken by our TWP friend Stephen Brett.
Glenn’s hit out in the W6 race wasn’t quite as successful with a huli at the first turn relegating his Horouta waka to 9th place. But the six was very much an add-on for Glenn and he should be proud of the hard yards he put into his singles campaign.
W6 was very much at the centre of the campaign for Jan Blythe, Carol Hunter and Lynette Campbell in the Master 70 division. Jan and Carol took out gold medals paddling for Aratika, which also qualifies them for the Long Distance World Championships in Samoa. Lynette was in the second Aratika boat and took home a silver medal.
Congratulations to all our paddlers, for winning your medals and showing everyone in the club that with the right application they can go compete at National events.
*Still waiting for a bit of news from as to how Greg Buck’s weekend went with his Horouta crew. Whatever the story, it was an amazing feat just to be there and paddling. Hopefully we will get a picture or two to add to the post.
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.