River ready for top paddlers

Mangahao National White Water Park at Shannon plays host to 100 international canoe slalom paddlers this weekend and the largest contingent of overseas kayakers at the venue.

Some of the world's top whitewater canoeists, including world and Olympic medalists, will compete in the New Zealand Open, national ranking races and the International Canoe Federation world ranking race.

Beijing Olympian Luuka Jones (Bay of Plenty) is the Oceania women's champion and the New Zealand No1 who will be pushing the boundaries.

The Lawrence sisters, Katrina and Rosalind, have flown over from Australia to race. In the first selection races on the Tarawera River at Kawerau last weekend, Jones was third behind them on the first day but she was the first New Zealander and second behind Katrina Lawrence, the K1 world No7, on Sunday.

Rosalind Lawrence is the world No1 in the C1 canoe, a new women's event.

Jones, on her website, says she is a great advocate of paddling at the Mangahao River with so many gates.

"I really like Mangahao; it's by far our best course in New Zealand and is the closest thing to an artificial course," Jones said.

"It's easy to adjust the gates, it's easily accessible; the only thing that keeps us from basing ourselves there is the fact that the flow [except for scheduled flow days] is unpredictable when there has not been much rain."

There will also be a strong New Zealand men's contingent including Aaron Osborne and former Massey University student Mike Dawson (Rotorua), the New Zealand No1.

They will be up against last year's rival from the Czech Republic, Vavrinec Hradilek, Frenchman Raphael Reveche, Australian Wil Forsythe, Slovakian Mat Lesjak and Canada's 1999 world champion, David Ford, four times an Olympian.

Many are recently back from training and competing at the Penrith complex in Sydney.

- © Fairfax NZ News