Coast talents dominate Canoe awards night
THEY may just have been named Canoeing Australia’s team of the year but the K4 crew may face a major reshuffle ahead of the Tokyo Games after a change to the program.
The crew of Ken Wallace, Jordan Wood, Riley Fitzsimmons and Murray Stewart – three of whom are based on the Gold Coast full-time – were named team of the year at Canoeing Australia’s awards over the weekend after snaring the world title in the 1000m.
It’s the event an Australian crew – including Stewart – won in London in 2012, while a team including Wallace and young guns Wood and Fitzsimmons finished fourth at in Rio last year. The quartet’s win at the world championships should have paved the way for a stable campaign for Tokyo.
But a change has been made to the event for 2020, halving the race distance to 500m.
“We’ve all been in K4s before ... but now that it’s turned into a 500m event, it’ll be interesting to see how the teams will get made up,” he said.
The awards were dominated by Coast athletes despite NSW world slalom champion Jess Fox being named Canoeist of the year. Gold Coaster Curtis McGrath was named Paracanoeist of the year after winning another two world titles, with his coach, Gold Coast-based Andrea King winning coach of the year.
The 2017 Award of Merit went to Paralympic silver medallist and former Gold Coaster Amanda Reynolds, Paralympic bronze medallist and 2017 Paracanoe world champion, Gold Coaster Susan Seipel and K1 1000m under-23 world champion Alyssa Bull.