A very large field gathered from near and far for a rainy day of racing on the Kaituna. Super low flows meant the time-trial runs would be brutal with a lot of slow moving water between the rapids, pushing the time-trial laps out to at least 7 minutes of sprinting!

Mike Dawson smashed the competition in the open men’s as did Louise Jull in the open women’s division, taking the Kaituna titles for 2014.  Zack Mutton took out the junior category with a time so fast he would have placed 6th in open men’s division.

Gerd Serrasolses comfortably took top honours in the long boat division, with blistering pace he stamped a huge winning margin of 11 seconds from 2nd place in his prijon hurricane.

The teams relay mass boater X saw 14 teams of 3 do battle on 3 sections of the river, all the while carrying their baton down the rapids to the next team member. Team ‘Ask John’ (John Snook, Tyler Fox and Brendan Bayly) took out 1st place after a strong start from the ‘3 stooges’ (Kenny Mutton, Martina Wegman and Gerd Serrasolses) who finished in 2nd. Team ‘Euro Trash’ including czech/kiwi paddler Ladislav Svarc, Matic Tercelj and Matthias Friedl, rounded out the podium in third place.

All in all it was enjoyable day of racing despite the weather. Bring on the Wairoa Extreme!

Below are the full time-trial results of the day.

Kaituna Time-trial 2014 results

Mike Dawson and Louise Jull 2014 Kaituna Time-trial champions.