Te Tupu dominate long sprints

Te Tupu O Te Manava oe vaka club dominated the weekend’s long distance 1000m and 1500m sprint races at Muri, winning 6 of the 7 races held.

Lack of numbers meant that the only two clubs that battled it out on the water were Te Tupu and Ngakau Toa Vaka with paddlers from the Live Free club filling in seats where they could and no sight of the Unsquashable club paddlers.

The long distance races were tough, as in the 1000m race, seeing paddlers had to execute 3 turns over a 250m course and 5 turns in the 1500m race.

The closest race of the day was the masters mixed 1000m sprint finals where the Te Tupu crew who crossed the line in the fastest time of the day of 6.19.19 were closely followed by Ngakau Toa in 6.23.18 and Te Tupu 2 in 6.26.06.

Ngakau Toa Vaka were certainly hot on the heels of the Te Tupu crews and in the open mixed 1500m race – Ngakau Toa held their own to take out the race in 9.57.39 followed by the Te Tupu crew in 10.20.41.

This weekend will see the finals of the sprint series and prizegiving ceremony with more exciting oe vaka racing predicted. - MW

1000m and 1500m V6 Sprints (250m turn) results: Master women 1000m final – 1st Te Tupu 6.41.57, 2nd Ngakau Toa 7.34.35, Open men 1500m final – 1st Te Tup 9.06.51, 2nd Ngakau Toa 9.32.41, 3rd Ngakau Toa 9.41.28, 4th Te Tupu under 19 11.03.88, Open women 1500m final – 1st Te Tupu 10.47.28, 2nd Ngakau Toa 11.05.17, 3rd Ngakau Toa 11.37.17, Junior Mixed 1000m final – 1st Te Tupu 6.35.87, 2nd Ngakau Toa 6.56.76, Master mixed 1000m final – 1st Te Tupu 6.19.19, 2nd Ngakau Toa 6.23.18, 3rd Te Tupu 6.26.06, Open mixed 1500m heat 1 – 1st Ngakau Toa 9.57.39, 2nd Te Tupu 10.20.41, 3rd Te Tupu under 19 10.45.70, 4th Ngakau Toa under 19 10.57.49

Open mixed 1500m heat 2 – 1st Te Tupu 10.10.36, 2nd Ngakau Toa 10.50.09.