August 11, 2023
Taniwha haka ready for podium finish
Eighty paddlers from Aotearoa are in Thailand for the World Dragon Boat Racing Championships in Pattaya.
Meri Gibson, the Taniwha Pango chef de mission, says the national dragon boating squad has teams in four divisions with the youngest paddler being 17 and the oldest being 73 years old.
She says the Thai humidity has challenged the teams, but they’ve exceeded their expectations and they’re hoping to be able to pull out the team haka.
“We’ve had a beautiful haka written for us by Jimmy Heta, one of our senior paddlers, and the team has worked really hard with the squad to perfect that. We hope we can break that out. It will only be used for a podium finish,” she says.
Live streams of the races can be found on the 16th IDBF World Dragon Boat Racing Championships, Thailand 2023 Facebook Page