WA kayaker Jaime Roberts has won dual sprint canoe national titles as a member of victorious K4 500 and K4 200 crews.
With the national championships currently being held in Penrith, Roberts formed part of successful composite crews across both distances, competing alongside Queenslanders Alyssa Bull and Alyce Burnett and South Australian Cat McArthur.
The results will likely earn the 26 year-old selection for the Australian sprint team to compete on this year’s World Cup circuit, ahead of later selections for the 2017 World Championship team, with the August titles to be held in Racice, Czech Republic.
The four women first claimed national honours in the K4 500 final, crossing the line over two seconds clear of a composite squad featuring Western Australian Shannon Reynolds.
Roberts, Bull, Burnett and McArthur then repeated the performance in the K4 200 to win in 37.81secs with Reynolds’ team again taking silver.
In the two-person K2 200 final, Roberts teamed with training partner Reynolds to finish second behind the Queensland Olympian pairing of Bull and Burnett.
Individually, Roberts collected a seventh place finish in the K1 500, was fourth (third Australian) in the K1 200 and again teamed with Reynolds for a fourth place effort in the K2 500 final.
Reynolds also collected a second place finish in the B Final of the K1 500 and is a strong chance to earn selection for Australia’s U23 international squad. Fellow West Australian Yale Steinepreis has also put forward her selection claims with an eighth place effort in the K1 200 final and a sixth place finish in the B Final of the K1 500.
In men’s racing, Nicholas Pond qualified for the A Final of the K1 500 taking seventh place. Pond also won the B Final of the K1 200, with Todd Brewer third and Sam McTigue sixth.
Brewer earned victory in the B Final of the K1 500m, whilst Mark Stowe has made a strong start to 200m racing, finishing third in the A Final of the K1 200 event.
Photo: AusCanoe
