We in Aoteraoa have a lot to be proud of, but our major success will be proven in setting a standard internationally which can only result in further progress of the sport on the world stage.

Congratulations must go out to so many people, but this little article is about our paddlers.

There is no doubt we had the cream of international waka ama sprint paddling here.   We know, too, that the Tahitian contingent worked very hard for this event, and were very confident coming here.  The competition was at the very highest standard.  Sure, we had the advantage of our waka and our conditions, but great paddlers are great paddlers, and we had some awesome competition. 

So the success of New Zealand/ Aotearoa can’t be underestimated.  We came away from Hilo in 2004 with our tails between our legs.  We all knew that experience couldn’t be repeated in our own country.  We were determined to do well.

And we did!

For those of you interested in statistics, here are a few.

• Hilo 3 Golds,  Karapiro 20 Golds
• Hilo 27 Medals, Karapiro 64 Medals
• Four W1 world champions (Hemi Wahapongo J16 Men , Rose King J16 Women, Nyree King Senior Master Women , Mandy Hatton Master Women).
• Four W12 world champion teams (Tawera Golden Master Women, Iron MaideNZ Senior Master Women, Manawaru/ Kahurangi Junior 19 Women, Team Weka Open Men).
• Six W6 turn race world champion teams (Hinerupe Junior 16 Women, Manawaru Junior 19 Women, Kotahitanga Senior Master Men, Meretuahiahi Golden Master Women, Team Aotearoa Master Women, Woolley Kumaras Open Men).
• Four W6 500m world champion teams (Hinerupe Junior 16 Women, Team Aotearoa Master Women, Iron MaideNZ Senior Master Women, Meretuahiahi Golden Master Women).

Eleven World Records (unofficial)

* No relevant previous world record

• 24 of the 25 W12 teams made finals.
• 45 of the 56 W6 teams (i.e. 80%) made finals.  All the Golden Masters teams and all of the J16 Mens teams made finals.  Many NZ teams made finals in all of the race divisions they competed in.
• 39 of our 86 W1 paddlers made finals.  Best represented in finals were the Junior 19 women (7 out of the 9 finalists) and the master women and senior master men (both 5 out of the 9 finalists).
• 223 NZ paddlers were presented with a total of 402 medals.  Almost 60% of the NZ contingent went home with at least one medal.
• A lot of our paddlers took away four medals.  And two paddlers got five.  Danielle Destounis (2 Gold 3 Silver) and Irirangi Moses (1 Gold, 2 Silver, 1 Bronze).    
• The most successful family of paddlers were the Kings – Hannah (Bronze), Rose (3 Gold, 1 Silver), Nyree (3 Gold).  Dave got 5th in the senior masters V1 final.

Paddlers of course come from clubs.  Many clubs gave freely of their resources – equipment and people – as well as supporting their paddlers to national teams.   The clubs contributing the most numbers of medal-winning paddlers were Horouta and Mareikura (about equal) followed by Waitakere.

The attached sheet gives details of all our medalists.