Porirua paddlers make spash in Rio
Porirua has again shown how it’s done on the world waka ama stage, snagging several medals at the world championships in Brazil recently.
Five paddlers from the Porirua Canoe Kayak Club – Turi Hodges, Mereana Hodges, Gaylene Sciascia, Ariana Ransom and Pania Tahau-Hodges – travelled to Rio de Janeiro in August.
‘‘It was the experience of a lifetime for us and we could not have done it without the support of our whanau, our friends and our community,’’ said Turi Hodges, who paddled his way to a bronze medal in the masters men’s V1 500 metres event.
Mereana Hodges said the knowledge and experience the small contingent had taken from the regatta would be shared with the paddling community in Porirua.
She won a bronze in the masters women’s V1 500m event and a silver with her sister-in-law, Pania Tahau- Hodges, in the masters women’s team event, the V6 500m race.
Ransom made her mark in the J19 women’s V1 500m event, finishing fifth.
With another two years to go in this grade, Ransom had cemented her reputation as an up- andcomer in waka ama, TahauHodges said.
Sciascia had an outstanding regatta, winning a bronze and two silver medals in the senior masters women’s grade.
She said she was now looking forward to a summer out on the water with her grandchildren, who will also be paddling for the Porirua club this season.
The club’s successes in Rio build on the success achieved by three club members who earlier in the year competed at the most prestigious international longdistance race in the world, the Aito regatta in Tahiti.
In that race, Mereana Hodges, the national women’s longdistance champion, was fourth in the women’s event.
Joern Scherzer and Po Taikato competed in the men’s event and finished well up the field of more than 400 paddlers.
Porirua Canoe Kayak Club is eyeing a busy summer and targeting the national sprint champs at Lake Karapiro in January.