Three paddlers from the Sunshine Coast recently returned from New Zealand with a lifetime of memories and a hunger for future competition.
Din Ruttelynck, Sarah Doherty and Donna Har-rison represented Canada at the 2006 World Sprint Races in March.
The Sprint Champ-ionships are held every two years at a different location. The event boasts some 5,000 paddlers from Asia, Europe, North America, South America, Africa, Australia and the South Pacific. There are five days of racing in the V1, V6 and V12, with men, women and youth and adapted paddlers racing. The main difference here is that Va'a paddling has no rudder involved, which is traditional outrigger paddling. Unlike the more popular westernized OC1 (outrigger canoe) Va'a paddling requires a more highly skilled paddler. The International Va'a Federation (IVF), which governs outrigger canoeing internationally, has tried to maintain traditional outrigger canoeing by making this event exclusively for rudderless paddling.
Ruttelynck and Doherty competed in the disabled exhibition races, while Harrison competed in the senior master (45 to 55 years old).
Harrison placed fifth in her heat, which moved her onto the next round. Stiff competition proved to be her undoing in the second round, or repachage, where she finished in seventh position.
"I'm happy with how my races went," Harrison said. "In order to experience an event like that, you have to go and be a part of it."
The next event in 2008 will be held in Sacramento, Calif., and Harrison is already getting prepared.
"Sacramento will be a whole different ball game," she said. "With it being a little easier for the North American teams to travel, Sacramento will bring out the best of the best. I now have a taste of the competition and how I measure up. I can train accordingly and hopefully compete at a much higher level in two years."
Overall, New Zealand topped the medal count with 63 medals, followed by Tahiti with 49 and Hawaii with 27.
Doherty and Ruttelynck had equally incredible experiences.
The pair won a bronze medal paddling with the Italian team in the V12 division, and Doherty paddled together with the Italians in the V6 where she won a silver medal.
Ruttelynck also paddled with Team Britain.
Despite the language barriers with the other teams, both said they had a wonderful time.
"Everyone was very open and welcoming," said Doherty. "I was inspired by so many competitors."
"Some of the teams, like Tahiti and New Zealand, are born with a paddle in their hands," added Ruttelynck. "Paddling for them is like hockey for us - it's their national sport. You can learn so much just by watching the other competitors."
Both are also shooting for Sacramento and want to work collectively in the community to continue promoting the sport, especially to adaptive paddlers.
One other group from the Coast was also gearing up for New Zealand. But after six months of hard work, the Sunshine Coast Women's Va'a was unable to send their full crew due to a lack of funds for a couple of the crew members.
"The team had decided at the beginning that either the whole crew would attend or no one would attend," said team organizer Seru Sanday in an email to Coast Reporter. "We are a team, and as a team we win together or lose together. We trained using a specific technique and putting substitutes in the canoe would ensure that we would not perform to the level that we and our coach had expected to perform.
"After breaking the world record for the women's 500m Sprint in the Open division during practice, not only once but three times, you can imagine the disappointment we all faced."
Sanday said the team looks forward to training and building for Sacramento and plans to enter other races both locally and abroad.
The community will have a chance to learn more about the World Sprints during a multi-media presentation put on by Doherty, Harrison and Ruttelynck on June 19 at 8 p.m. at the Seaside Centre in Sechelt. Details will be announced closer to the event.
