Final Warm-up for WA Paddlers as Countdown to Sprint Nationals in Perth Intensifies
With less than a month until Perth hosts the 2019 Sprint Canoe National Championships at Champion Lakes, WA’s elite paddlers have hit the water for a final competitive tune-up at GP2 in Penrith.
2018 World Championship team member Jaime Roberts had a busy race schedule, competing across five boat classes.
She was a member of the winning K4 500 crew which comprised Alyce Burnett, Jo Brigden-Jones and Aly Bull along with Roberts, with the quad claiming line honours comfortably ahead of another Australian composite crew which contained Western Australian athlete Yale Steinepreis.
Roberts also collected a second place finish in the K2 500 final, partnering Brigden-Jones with the boat finishing behind Burnett and Bull. WA paddler Shannon Reynolds finished fourth, but was a member of the third fastest Australian pairing behind a visiting French duo.
Both West Australians also qualified for the final of the K1 500, with Roberts taking seventh place (5th Aus) and Reynolds fetching ninth (8th Aus).
Roberts and Brigden-Jones were the quickest Australian pairing in the non-Olympic K2 200 discipline, with Roberts also finishing fifth in the K1 200 to complete a packed weekend.
A particular highlight for the WA contingent was achieved in the U23 women’s K2 500 selection race with Steinepreis claiming a race win in tandem with Ella Beere which will qualify the duo for the Australian U23 team for this year’s international season.
Attention will now focus on the Sprint Canoe National Championships which will be held at Champion Lakes from March 6-10 and will form part of the selection process for the representative senior Australian team for this year’s international racing.
Further details regarding this year’s National Championships can be viewed via the official event website.