The selection of two Paracanoe athletes on Tuesday in addition to the men's and women's squads already announced confirmed that New Zealand will field the largest ever Canoe Sprint team for the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
Scott Martlew and Peter Cowan joined the 6 female and 4 male paddlers who will wear the silver fern in the canoe sprint and paracanoe events in Paris in August and September.
Women’s Team
New Zealand’s most successful ever Olympian, Dame Lisa Carrington, will lead the charge and contest in 3 disciplines- the K1, K2 and K4 events.
The six-time Olympic medallist will be competing in the K1 500m event and be joined by Gisborne’s Alicia Hoskin in the K2 500m race, as the duo look to defend the gold medal won by Dame Lisa and Caitlin Regal at the Tokyo Games.
Carrington and Hoskin will also team up with Games debutants Tara Vaughan and Olivia Brett in the K4. The quartet go into the Games as World Champions, having last year won New Zealand’s first ever world title in the big boat.
Rio 2016 Olympian Aimee Fisher also makes her Olympic return. She’ll contest the K1 500m, as well as the K2 500 where she’ll be joined in the boat by Dunedin’s Lucy Matehaere.
Fisher and Carrington both racing the K1 500m is a mouth-watering prospect for NZ fans, after two incredible races at recent World Cups which saw dramatic photo finishes between the two at the front of the field in both events as they topped the podium.
Fisher came out on top in both events, 0.33 seconds separating them in the Szeged World Cup as both went under the world best time. In Poznan, the gap was just 0.05 seconds.
Men's Squad
Tokyo Olympians Max Brown and Kurtis Imrie were named alongside boatmates and Games debutants’ Hamish Legarth and Grant Clancy, in an exciting return of a Kiwi mens K4 boat after 32years.
It’s a busy Olympic schedule for the athletes who will also will compete across the K2 and the C2 disciplines at the games. In Paris, Imrie will pair with Legarth in the Men’s K2 500m, while Brown will team up with Clancy in the C2 500m.
Zach Ferkins has been selected as reserve for all three boats.
The quartet head to Paris in good form, with the K4 team setting a new NZ record when they broke the 1:20s time barrier for the first time in competition in 2023.
Both Brown and Imrie made their Olympic debuts in the Covid-delayed Tokyo Games where the pair placed an impressive 5th in the K2 500m event.
Paracanoe Squad
Christchurch paddler Scott Martlew will compete at his third Paralympic Games in the KL2 200m kayak event and VL3 200m event. Para va’a specialist Peter Cowan, from Hawkes Bay, will make his Paralympic Games debut in the VL3 200m.
In May, Cowan qualified a spot for New Zealand in the VL3 200m when he achieved a remarkable milestone in his paddling career – winning silver in the Para va’a at the ICF Para Canoe World Championships in Szeged, Hungary. In the thrilling VL3 200m final, Cowan finished just 0.071 seconds behind Ukraine’s Vladyslav Yepifanov – setting up an exciting showdown in Paris.
Martlew, a three-time world championship medallist, was the first New Zealand Paracanoe Paralympian when he represent NZ in the KL3 200m in Rio 2016. He placed 8th in the final. In the 2020 Paralympics, Scott was 4th in the KL2 200m final and 8th in the VL3 200m final.
The Paris 2024 Olympic Games begin on 27th July, with the Canoe Sprint events running from 6-10th August. The Paracanoe events at the Paralympics are on the 6-8 September.
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