Kayaking: Gold rush for Whanganui's Zane Mills-Nossiter and Angus Sewell at national champs

It was another strong weekend for the Whanganui-bred products at the 2020 NZCT New Zealand Canoe Sprint Championships on a sun-drenched Lake Karapiro.

A final tally of seven golds, plus a sprinkling of silver and bronze, was enough for the Whanganui Kayak & Multisport Club to finish fourth on the overall points table amongst the 14 clubs who medalled over the three days of competition.

On Friday, at the same time as comrade Max Brown was enjoying success at the Oceania Championships in Sydney by qualifying the Kiwi's K2 for Tokyo 2020, Whanganui's Zane Mills-Nossiter was grabbing the first of a fistful of national gold medals in the men's under 16 division.

After winning his K1 200m heat by nearly four seconds, the Whanganui prospect claimed the final in 44.28s, just ahead of Hawke's Bay's Damien Da Silva, while Poverty Bay's Angus Baker was back in third amongst the nine boats.

Earlier, Mills-Nossiter had jumped in the K2 200m boat with clubmate Angus Sewell for a straight nine-boat final, and the Whanganui pair claimed gold in 42.28s, ahead of Baker and his Poverty Bay team mate in second, while the Cook Islands crew was third.

Having stepped up a grade, Sewell was also cleaning up back in the under 14's K1 200m, winning his heat by nine seconds in 51.55s, and then snatching gold with a six second win in the final in an even quicker 50.01s, ahead of another Hawke's Bay Da Sliva in Julien, while Poverty Bay's Ollie Egan was third.

Mills-Nossiter and Sewell were also part of the K4 crew that had another straight final in a four-boat race, taking the silver behind the Cook Islands.

Into the Saturday events and it was Open K2 1000m pairing of Toby Brooke and Jack Clifton who would make their way to the podium, claiming bronze in the A Final in 3m 38.82s, comfortably ahead of the also-rans but well back from the winning Hawke's Bay crew of Ben Duffy and Hamish Legarth (3m 29.51s), while the Arawa Canoe Club was second (3m 34.34s).

Clifton had come sixth in his Open Men's K1 1000m semifinal, with clubmate Liam Lace in fifth, but Clifton could take encouragement from finishing third in the B Final, with Lace dropping back to eighth.

In the Open Men's K1 500m, Brooke and Lace were fourth in their respective heats, with Brooke then third in his semifinal, while Lace was sixth in his semi to end their day.

Over in the Under 16 events, **Mills-Nossiter continued to flourish in both his individual competition and his partnership with Sewell, adding another pair of golds in the 500m. **

Mills-Nossiter smashed his heat with a five second win in 2m 7.73s, and it wasn't much closer in the final, as a 2m 6.47s time put him three seconds clear of Da Silva and Baker again in a podium replay of Friday.

Again the K2 500m for under 16's was raced as a straight final, with Mills-Nossiter and Sewell claiming gold in 2m 4.01s – two seconds clear of the Poverty Bay crew, while Eastern Bay Canoe Rowing Club were third.

In the Under 18 Women's K1 500m, Whanganui's Sophie Brooke, who had won the 200m B Final the day before, had a promising start with second place in her heat, while clubmate Saige Zimmerman was eighth, as was Anna Clifton in the next heat.

Brooke kept it up with second in her semifinal, Clifton eighth, to set up another medal chance in Sunday's finals.

Unfortnately, Brooke could not maintain momentum the next morning, finishing the A Final in eighth place.

Toby Brooke then took to the water for his Open Men's final but had to settle for seventh place.

**But Whanganui, specifically Sewell, weren't done with trips to the podium. **

The youngster closed out an outstanding regatta with the under 14 men's K1 500m crown to go with his 200m title from Friday.

And once again, the final was no contest, with Sewell's time of 2m 13.9s being a whopping 15 seconds clear of Egan in second place, followed by North Shore's Kaiha Gilbertston.

Another rower to claim a 200m-500m double was North Shore's Ashton Reiser in the Open Men's, and the elite athlete added his skills to the Whanganui K4 for a straight 500m final with Lace, Clifton and Toby Brooke.

The composite crew claimed the silver, with their 1m 33.07s time being comfortably clear of third placed Karapiro Kayak Racing Club, but not strong enough to haul in Arawa Canoe Club (1m 30.81s).

Jared Smith
Whanganui Chronicle 18/2/20