May 04, 2023
Va’a ocean racing back after four years
The chief executive of Waka Ama New Zealand says our teams for the IVF World Distance championships in Samoa in August are ready to go – but they face a tough challenge from countries like Tahiti and Australia.
Lara Collins, who is also president of the the International Va’a Federation’, is just back from Samoa where she says preparations for the open ocean events are well in hand.
Teams races are 24 kilometres while individual races are 16 kilometres … and ocean-racing is very different to sprint racing.
“Everybody will be competitive. It’ll be much different to sprints, and a different fitness and different training regime required. So it’s hard to say – because we haven’t had the event since 2019 – who the best country’s will be. In Mooloolaba I think New Zealand came third on the medals tally behind Tahiti and Australia. So it’s certainly going to be tough, and exciting.
Lara Collins says of the 26 countries competing, favourites are likely to include hosts Samoa, Hawaii, Australia, Great Britain and Aotearoa.