With WAIS athletes only four weeks away from the first round of Olympic selection trials, the fourth regatta of the local regatta season will provide the paddlers an opportunity to consolidate their race plans and build on what has so far been a successful season.
At the recent NSW State Championships – which was attend by all National team contenders plus a number of Internationals – Alana Nicholls (Dianella) showed she was on track to achieve her goal of racing both K1 200m and K1 500m at the Olympics with comfortable victories in both events.
WAIS combo Jesse Phillips and Steve Bird (Doubleview) confirmed their improvement since World Championships with a two thirds of a boat length victory in the K2 200m, their most comfortable win to date in a full field.
The WAIS K4 1000m crew of Reece Baker (Marmion), Daniel Bowker (Doubleview), Brendon Sarson (Karrinyup) and Brodie Holmes (Sorrento) also showed the No2 World ranked national team K4 that they are not going to have things all their own way at selection trials finishing just under a length behind.
In the U23 space Lockie Cooke (Mosman Park) is proving to be one of the top two or three U23s in the country with strong performances at the NSW and Qld State Championships. In the women’s U23 field Jaymee Lee Martin (Willeton) paddled very well at GP2 in Ballarat last weekend making the senior K1 500m final and narrowly missing the 200m final but showing that she is currently in the top couple of U23 paddlers.
U18 paddler Shannon Reynolds (Wembley) built on her growing reputation with victories in the U18 K1 200m, 500m and 1000m as well as victories in the U18 K2 200m and 500m.
Canoeist Ferenc Szekszardi is in Sydney for a National Squad training camp.
