Wellington paddler grabs four golds
Kurtis Imrie was just 1.37secs from creating history at the New Zealand canoe racing championships at Lake Karapiro, with only an Olympian stopping him recording a unique treble.
The 21-year-old paddler from the Mana club in Wellington took home four gold medals, including rare wins in the K1 200m and 500m finals.
Yesterday’s K1 1000m showdown saw an intriguing showdown, with Imrie pushing Rio Olympian and Mana teammate Marty McDowell all the way.
‘‘I was over the moon. I was hoping I could give him a bit of a push – he had too much class – but I was pretty stoked to be even that close to him, knowing that he went to the Olympics,’’ Imrie said.
‘‘Hopefully at the next Olympics, I can be there as well.’’
After a decent post-Olympic break, McDowell finished in 3:37.05, with Imrie clocking 3:38.42, well clear of Poverty Bay rival Quaid Thompson, who was third in 3:44.05. Imrie, the younger brother of Olympic K4 paddler Kayla, had earlier beaten Bay of Plenty’s Taris Harker in Friday’s 200m sprint decider.
On Sunday he added the K1 500m title with a commanding 2.75sec margin over Thompson, although Thompson had a measure of revenge at the end of a big weekend of racing, capturing the 5km crown with Imrie fourth.
It’s been a long fightback for Imrie, after contracting glandular fever two years ago, but things have improved markedly since joining the national men’s programme in Auckland in December under coach Fred Loyer.
‘‘The whole aspect of training has completely changed moving to Auckland, learning how to train properly with your heartrate in a certain zone and being able to maintain the hard stuff,’’ he explained.
‘‘My problem has always been I’d ‘fly and die’ so I’m just working on a race plan so that I’m evenly splitting through the race.’’
His other golds came in team boats, combining with McDowell to win the K2 1000m final, and with McDowell, Ethan Moore and Glen Muirhead in the K4 1000m.
Despite his sprinting success, the longer distances are where he sees his future success.
‘‘I’m definitely targeting the 1000m at the under-23 world championships this year and it’s a possibility to race the ICF world cup series but I’ll have a debrief with Fred and see what he wants me to do.
The other open star at the championships was Hawke’s Bay’s Aimee Fisher, who capitalised on the absence of Lisa Carrington’s absence from K1 boats to win the K1 200m and K1 500m double.
She was especially delighted with her victory in the longer race, beating Olympic K4 teammate Caitlin Ryan (North Shore) into second with a courageous display.
‘‘That’s probably the first time I’ve ever been really been brave in a 500m,’’ Fisher said, after clocking 1:53.30 for a 0.8sec margin.
‘‘Every other time, I’d chicken out but I’ve done a couple of 500s at training where I’d been getting the hang of it, being aggressive off the line. To do that in race conditions, that was the real test. Caitlin and I had a great battle in the first half of the race and I managed to bring it home.’’