Aotearoa’s waka ama whānau are celebrating an extraordinary international campaign after two weeks of racing at the 2026 IVF World Sprint Championships in Singapore, with Waka Ama Aotearoa Chief Executive Lara Collins praising the performances, commitment and collective spirit of every team that represented the country.
The championships brought together some of the world’s leading va’a paddlers at Marina Bay, with Aotearoa crews competing across multiple age groups, elite divisions, club races and adaptive competition.
After two demanding weeks on the water, Waka Ama Aotearoa summed up the campaign with a simple message of pride — Kātahi ngā wiki whakahirahira kua taha ake nei! — acknowledging what an incredible few weeks it had been for the entire Aotearoa contingent.
With racing now complete, the organisation has celebrated not only those who returned home with gold, silver and bronze medals, but every paddler and team that earned the opportunity to represent Aotearoa on the world stage.
Two weeks, hundreds of races and one Aotearoa whānau
The scale of the campaign went well beyond the final medal tally.
Crews spent two weeks navigating demanding conditions, intense competition and the pressure that comes with racing against the strongest paddling nations in the world.
Waka Ama Aotearoa says every team that travelled to Singapore contributed to the success of the campaign, regardless of whether their final race ended on the podium.
The organisation has now published the results of its teams across their respective finals, providing a snapshot of just how widely Aotearoa was represented throughout the championship programme.
Behind those results sit years of training, early mornings on the water, club competitions, national championships, fundraising and enormous support from whānau.
For Collins and Waka Ama Aotearoa, that collective effort is central to the kaupapa.
Aotearoa among the world’s best
The results underline the international strength of the Aotearoa programme.
New Zealand claimed major world titles during the championships, including gold in the Elite Men’s V12 500 and Elite Women’s V12 500, while Aotearoa’s junior men also took the world title in the Elite Junior Men’s V6 1000.
There were further medals throughout the elite, junior, adaptive and club programmes, demonstrating that Aotearoa’s strength extends across generations and categories.
The margins at world championship level were often tiny, reinforcing just how demanding international waka ama has become.
Against powerhouse paddling nations including Tahiti, Hawai’i, Canada, Australia, the United States and New Caledonia, Aotearoa crews repeatedly demonstrated they belonged among the world’s best.
Regional clubs carrying Aotearoa onto the world stage
One of the great strengths of the Singapore campaign was the representation from communities across the motu.
Paddlers from Tairāwhiti, Nelson and numerous other rohe travelled to compete, while clubs including Horouta, Pineula and Te Toki were among those producing significant performances.
That regional depth is important.
Waka ama provides a pathway capable of taking somebody from their local awa, moana or club training session all the way to a world championship final.
For tamariki and rangatahi watching from home, seeing paddlers from their own communities standing on international podiums provides powerful evidence that the pathway is real.
More than a medal tally
While gold, silver and bronze medals provide the most visible measure of sporting success, Waka Ama Aotearoa’s message following Singapore has deliberately extended beyond the podium.
Every crew had to qualify.
Every paddler had to prepare.
Every team carried the expectations and support of clubs and whānau thousands of kilometres from home.
And every Aotearoa representative contributed to the country’s growing reputation within international va’a.
That is why the final medal tally tells only part of the story.
The campaign was also about the coaches, managers, volunteers, supporters and whānau who helped get those paddlers to Singapore in the first place.
Waka Ama, mā te katoa
At the heart of the campaign sits an important kaupapa: Waka Ama, mā te katoa — mō ake tonu.
Waka ama is for everyone, forever.
Few sporting movements demonstrate that philosophy as clearly.
Competition extends from junior paddlers through open and elite racing and into masters divisions, allowing people to remain involved across generations.
Tamariki can paddle alongside a wider whānau where parents, grandparents, aunties, uncles, cousins and kaumātua may all have their own connection to the waka.
That creates something much larger than a conventional sporting pathway.
It creates community.
Sport grounded in whakapapa
For Māori, the waka also carries significance that cannot be measured by a stopwatch.
Waka connect Aotearoa to histories of navigation, migration, whakapapa and relationships with the moana.
Modern international racing may involve high-performance programmes, world rankings and medals, but the cultural foundations remain visible.
For many paddlers, representing Aotearoa means carrying their whānau, club, hapū, iwi and tūpuna with them onto the water.
That connection between sporting excellence and cultural identity has helped waka ama become one of the great Māori sporting growth stories.
The success comes home
Now the Singapore campaign is over, its impact returns to communities across Aotearoa.
World championship paddlers return to their clubs.
Coaches bring international experience home.
Rangatahi have new role models.
And the knowledge gained from racing the world’s strongest crews feeds directly back into the development of the next generation.
That may ultimately prove just as valuable as the medals themselves.
For Lara Collins and Waka Ama Aotearoa, Singapore 2026 has again demonstrated what happens when elite performance, whānau and kaupapa move together.
Two weeks of racing may be over, but the legacy of the campaign will continue on the awa and moana of Aotearoa long after the medals have been counted.
Kātahi ngā wiki whakahirahira kua taha ake nei. Waka Ama, mā te katoa — mō ake tonu.
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