First ever national teams

For the first time ever, Cook Islands paddling clubs have merged to form national squads for Vaka Eiva.

Mens coach Reuben Dearlove and womens coach Fletcher Melvin are confident in their squads, which are in large part made up of paddlers who competed at the Pacific Games in Noumea earlier this year.

During a training run on Saturday, this years national mens squad smashed the Round Raro winning time set by Te Tupu O Te Manava paddlers last year. In just 2:34:58 they paddled around the island. Last year it took the International Boiler Boys the winning team 2:38 to clinch the Pacific Cup.

The Cook Islands mens squad comprised mostly of experienced paddlers, four of whom recently competed at the South Pacific Games in Noumea will take on crews from overseas in the Round Raro and the iron races. They are shaping up to be a formidable crew.

Pacific Games paddlers Tungane Manuel, Marona Mita, Tupuna Amo and Andre Tutaka-George join Melvin, John Beasley and Paul Pearson and first-time paddler Shahram Saboori in the line-up. Amo will be steering the crew, and relieved during changeovers by Dearlove.

The squad is mostly young paddlers Tutaka-George, who last year paddled with the U19 boys crews, is just 17. They expect their biggest rivals to be the Australian mens team, which ranked sixth in the Molokai race earlier this year.

Two womens squads one A team and one B will also represent the Cook Islands next week.

The A squad is made up of Joyce Fortes, Vaea Melvin, Paulina Beddoes, Annie Fisher, mother and daughter Emilene and Teina Taulu, Tai Cumming, Chrissy Thomas and steerer Tara Cummings.

The A squads got a leg up theyre a really strong team and their times are good, Melvin said. He expects that their most formidable competition will come in the form of Kiwi squad Laras Lot and an Australian squad from Mooloolooba.

On the B team are Danielle Cochrane, Fiona Pekepo, Tina Lukupa, Jane Pearson, Myland Lane, Aloma Moore, Liz Tama, Leilani Sadaraka and steerer Lin Andrews.

The girls have been training for months with Ron Roly Rolleston, a paddler who spent 15 years as a fitness trainer for the New Zealand Navy.

Hes got a lot of experience and were really lucky to have him, Melvin said. The girls have been training hard.

Theyve been doing circuit training three days a week, gym training twice a week and five days on the water some weeks.

Squad selection was based on attendance at morning and afternoon training sessions, periodic fitness tests and individual trial times.

The Cook Islands national squads will compete in the Round Raro, iron races and sprints but have not as yet entered into the running for the Mixed Round Raro Race.

Melvin says the canoeing association envisages merging clubs into national squads every second year during the years the Pacific Games or Mini Games are on. On off years, local clubs will enter teams, so as to give paddlers who do not qualify for the Games a shot at competing in Vaka Eiva.