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Download AudioAs some of the 3000 kiwi competitors in last weeks’ IVF World Sprint Championships in Hilo face disruption to their flights home because of the effect of Hurricane Hone on the island, attention is shifting to Hawai’i’s west coast where waka ama teams are gathering for the world’s largest outrigger canoe race.
Nineteen New Zealand waka ama teams have entered for the Queen Lili’uokalani Canoe Race, including Auckland University’s Engineering Eagles.
Member Alex Morriss, a post graduate exchange student from Bath, England, says the team has been training hard since it qualified by winning the annual inter-faculty Great Waka Ama Race at Okahu Bay in March.
He’s looking forward to soaking up the atmosphere of being at Kailua-Kona among 2500 competitors.
“It’s the biggest outrigger canoe race in the world so it will be amazing to see all the different teams around the world and the team performing together and representing the university,” he says.
The team will race Sunday New Zealand time.
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