Friday, 05 March 2010
THE Tarawera River will stage the North Island kayak championships tomorrow and Kawerau-born Regan August will be among the competitors.
August lived in Kawerau where he was a student at Kawerau South School until 2006 when he made the move to Tauranga Intermediate School. It was there that he was introduced to kayaking.
He attended Tauranga Boys College in 2008 and started competing in both kayak events and canoe slaloms.
This was juggled with his involvement in badminton as a Bay of Plenty age group representative. By 2009 he had earned national kayak medals and represented New Zealand in the development squad.
He won the down-river event at the Australian secondary schools open champs as well as a third placing in both the C2 mixed and K1 teams.
August has been doing nine training sessions a week in the hope that he will become much stronger in the sport.
He has raced with top international kayakers this season and said the experience had been valuable for his development.
The North Island champs will also have New Zealand junior team member Malcolm Gibson make the long trip from Gore to compete in Kawerau and there will also be a strong line-up of up to 40 competitors negotiating the gates and rapids.
The first runs will start around midday and be completed in the afternoon.