Local teams have been putting in the mileage this year looking forward to their penultimate event of the season, the annual showcase oe vaka event Vaka Eiva.

The nationals v6 season saw great competition between the two main clubs Te Tupu o te Manava and Ngakau toa Vaka, with a seesaw of wins between the top men’s and women’s crews.  The nationals irons finals saw the men in red led by seasoned pro Reuben Dearlove take the championship title just ahead of Ngakau Toa open mens who have had an impressive season led by Tupuna Amo who has coached some of the men from scratch and seen great gains.

Both crews have national reps, with  Te Tupu’s Reuben, Andre Tutaka George, Teava Hunter, Raniera Ellison, and NTVs Tupuna Amo, Damien Heather, and  Pomare Pittman. 

The ladies in blue Ngakau Toa snatched the nationals iron race from Te Tupu’s master crew, so both clubs will be putting it all on the line next week both in the iron and Round Raro races.

Both teams field experienced national reps, Ngakau Toa includes captain Tara Buckley, Talissa Koteka, Ana File, Leilani Sadaraka, Ioana Turia, Tahiti Isaaka, Sheeny Buckley,  while Te Tupus masters crew captained by Serena Hunter includes national reps Tina Mitchell, Tamsyn Dearlove, Kelly Pick, Noovai Aspiris, Lotu Vea and Paulina Beddoes.

Both clubs will have teams in both the women’s open and masters 40s divisions, with Te Tupu also fielding two Master Men’s 50s teams, and NTVs J19 girls, most of who represented in Hawaii world sprints in August have been training hard and will have competition from visiting Kotuku U19 girls from Auckland.

The V6 iron races will be run Monday morning with mens and womens races battling over a 12k course, with the popular mixed iron race in the afternoon which will see 19 canoes on the water.

The singles races this Saturday are expected to draw good numbers, with a large shipment of new canoes delivered to the island recently, and more paddlers out on the water enjoying singles action.

In the mens race nationals champ Reuben Dearlove will be the paddler to watch, with Andrew Tutaka George expected to be hot on his heels, and good open competition from both NTV and TT.  Top paddlers to look for on the day include Hiromana Flores from Tahiti, Australia’s top singles paddler Matt Abbott, Australian based Cookie Beale Vogel, and NZ’s Mark Malaki Williams.

In the women’s race, national champion Serena Hunter leads the local charge.Top Tahitian junior Mihinoa Paari, world junior champion in both sprints and long distance, who is joining the NTV women’s team will be a dominating force, and top NZ masters paddler and long time VE supporter Vesna Radonich, together with top Aussie masters paddler Nia Rudolphe who last competed at VE some 10 years ago will also be on the startline. 

The Bob Worthington mixed RR race next Wednesday, has 11 teams on the water and is always hotly contested. 

 The penultimate races of the week, the Round Rarotonga mens and womens changes race rounds off the week on the Friday, with the women racing in the morning and the men in the afternoon.  This year’s VE Round Raro will also decide the national champion for both men and women as weather caused some disruption to this year’s racing season. Both mens and womens divisons will face stiff competition from the likes of NZ’s Pinuela a top ranking Auckland club, some of whom paddled last year in the winning Makoha crew, and in the womens, a number of NZs top paddlers have come together in Makoha Poerava.

All in all an exciting week of paddling action liesahead, with local paddlers ready to put their training to the test.

CICA