CHAMPIONS: Ngaa Puukeikura o Maniapoto: Taitamariki (midgets) age division winners
MANIAPOTO’s youngest kōtiro waka ama crew have followed in the footsteps of their tuakana – their older sisters – as champion paddlers.
They won the 250 metre sprints for their age group at the Te Puku o Te Ika Regionals, which attracted teams from as far as Huntley, Taupō and Whakatāne. The competition was held at Lake Karapiro, in Waikato.
The taitamariki “midget” age category under 10 crew is called Ngaa Puukeikura o Maniapoto.
The girls all study at Te Wharekura o Maniapoto, and it is the school’s first time fielding a team in this age group.
On Sunday, they paddled for Te Toki Voyaging trust, a connection made by coach and manager Whaea Jahdine Tapara who had paddled with the club since her own childhood.
In the championship finals, the taitamariki beat Waitete (Karapiro Waka) to come first out of eight teams.
Their time was 2:05:56; Waitete’s was 2:08:42.
In the earlier Race 1, they beat second place-winners Wairaka, (Waka Ama o Whakatāne) by an impressive 13 seconds, achieving a time of 1:51:59 ahead of Whakatāne’s 2:04 time.
The girls trained for just over a month – five weeks.
“But it wasn’t really five weeks’ worth,” Jahdine said.
She estimates the team got 15-16 hours of water training time, usually leaving the kura at 3pm to arrive in Hamilton to train between 4.30pm and 6pm, a long evening for the young girls. Other practices were at Awakino.
“We had to battle with weather at the time too.
“There were some weeks where we had to make a call. We were on our way to Hamilton, and it just started pouring down.
“We turned around, and we used that time to go train via swimming at Te Awamutu pools. We got our fitness in through swimming.”
Swimming is also important for waka ama, because it builds fitness.
The midgets had trained with whānau, the J16 team girls, who are international champion paddlers.
Jahdine said she was “absolutely proud’ of the crew’s win in their first team competition outing.
“My daughter, Teiawhiro Tapara-Heta, was the only team member who had competed previously – she’d been in the regionals when she was 5.
“And she’s had a long break from it.”
Regardless, did they go in expecting to win?
“Absolutely. I had a lot of faith in them. And it was good to see the fruit of their hard labour turn out in our favour on the day.”
Still, it hadn’t felt like a certainty, because other than training with their tuākana, the Maniapoto girls did not have a way to gauge where they sat against the standard for that age group.
The lane they had been given had been an advantage.
“I was grateful for where we were placed, because it’s quite strategic as well.
“If you know Karāpiro, there is an advantage to being on the first lane, where you’re not so much impacted by the wind.”
The girls’ age was also a plus.
“I knew for a fact we would have been stronger, because they are nine years old. They are in their last year for midgets. Next year, they’re in intermediate grade.
“Some of the other teams had fresh five-year-olds like my daughter was once upon a time.”
The girls will get a week off from training this week.
They will get back into it next week, preparing for the national sprints at Karapiro from January 18 to 24.
“That’s when they’ll battle it out against the whole country,” she said.
The win had been the work of many.
“I would just like to mihi to our supporters, especially, our team manager Whaea Asha and also our keen committed whānau. Edz Wehi as well – we’ve worked alongside each other, and I was fortunate enough to help her too towards the (older) girls Gubbi Gubbi campaign [the recent indigenous championships held in Queensland].
The decision to send younger girls to competitions was made at that time.
Although the older girls had been “amazing” over there, Jahdine said that event had led to the decision to get the junior girls paddling.
“It’s always easier to start them younger,” she said.
They will hopefully join their big sisters in the coming year.
“That’s where we’re aiming for, for 2024, taking these (younger) girls to Gubbi Gubbi.
They also hope to paddle under their own iwi name.
“We are in the process of instituting our own Maniapoto waka ama club here in our own waters.”
Proud kuia Amokura Wehi, whose moko is team member Maraea Wehi is proud of both the midgets and the older J16 team.
“They’ve been rigorously training, and it showed on Sunday,”
She agrees with getting paddlers started young because it means they get used to the sport before they start to do “the teenage thing,’
She is also grateful the team had Jahdine as its coach.
A highlight for Amokura and her husband was when the girls’ boat was a quarter length ahead in one of the races.
“It was our first time watching them out at Karapiro.
“You could tell we were the newbies, because we were running along calling out,” she said.
