Fun day for young paddlers

Yesterday’s Mapu Sprints in Muri was all about fun and games for the 140 junior paddlers taking part in the Vaka Eiva Festival.

Paddlers and supporters began the day with a tree planting ceremony at the Nukupure Park before they were officially welcomed to Muri beach with a traditional Turou by the junior sponsors Pacific Resort.

The first event of the day was the lagoon races in the under 14 mixed, under 16 men and women’s division.

New Zealand based Cook Islands crews were the stars of Muri after cleaning up in all three lagoon races yesterday.

New Zealand based Cook Islands crew Tiare Toa took out the under 14 mixed 2km race crossing the line in 16 minutes and 47 seconds – a little over a minute ahead of Hawaii’s future stars from the Hawaiian Canoe Club.

Team Tumutoa were too classy in the under 16 boys 4km race winning in 0:25:41 ahead of the Waitakere Porirua crew who crossed the line in 0:26:06 – four seconds ahead of the Hawaiian Canoe Club team who were still thrilled to take out third place.

Team Tiare Maori were the strongest of the under 16 women’s crew winning the 4km V6 race in 28 minutes and 41 seconds.

The biggest cheers though were for third place getters from Aitutaki who fought hard for their podium finish.

Novelty races kept the paddlers entertained with the ‘coconut shuffle’ and flashmob dance proving to be favourites with the juniors.

Sprint races began later in the afternoon and Vaka Eiva organisers were predicting that some races would have to be raced on Thursday due to some of the paddlers wanting to take part in the boiler swim at Trader Jacks.

Today senior paddlers will have their turn to play at Muri with a full day of fun and sprint races on the cards.

The day will also begin with a traditional Turou at 8am with races to start as soon as paddlers arrive at the sprint site next to Sails Restaurant and Bar.

More Vaka Eiva inside, pages 10-12.