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Mooloolaba
establishes
record
The defending champs from
Australia better the previous
mark by more than 2 minutes
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Falling a couple of minutes short of the race record last year, the defending champions from Australia wanted to deliver not only a second straight victory, but also paddle faster than any other crew in the 26 years of the event.
Mooloolaba did just that yesterday, winning the 41-mile race from Molokai to Oahu across the Kaiwi Channel in 5 hours, 22 minutes and 12 seconds, a little better than 2 minutes faster than the previous record (5:24:32) Offshore of California established in 1995.
"Being 2 minutes off the record, we knew we had to come back and get it this year," Mooloolaba's Leigh Townsend said.
Added teammate Robyn Saultry: "If we were in front, the main thing for us was to go for it."
The Na Wahine is considered the world championship of six-person outrigger canoe paddling. Mooloolaba was one of 60 teams that started the race at Hale O Lono Harbor on Molokai, with the finish set at Duke Kahanamoku Beach in Waikiki.
Located in Queensland, Mooloolaba is composed of all-star paddlers from various areas. With 10 members per open crew (six paddle at a time, rotating with open-ocean changes), others in the winning group included Lisa Curry-Kenny, Kirsty Holmes, Jasmine Cohen, Danielle Lindsay, Sonia Adams, Cassandra Sedgman, Andrea Polkinghorne and Cheryl Scribe.
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Outrigger of Waikiki, which finished second to Mooloolaba last year by almost 10 minutes, closed the gap considerably this year, but again was the runner-up at 5:26:36. Team Bradley, a local crew made up of paddlers from several islands, took third at 5:30:22. False Creek of Canada (5:31:47) finished fourth, and Oahu's Hui Lanakila (5:34:35) fifth.
"We had a great race," Outrigger's Kisi Haine said. "(Mooloolaba's paddlers) are just bigger and stronger. We did come up a little bit on them ... but we never quite got ahead. We tried hard. We have small girls -- little peanuts -- but we paddle hard and we surf well."
The channel was sticky, with only moderate 4-foot seas for the crossing, but a favorable tide as well as sizable south swell once the teams rounded Oahu's east shore enhanced the opportunity for fast times.
"I think those (Mooloolaba) girls are really strong, and they deserve it," Team Bradley's Noe Auger said. "I thought the race was really hard. We didn't have any fast runs, but the times are fast, so I'm confused."
Mooloolaba battled evenly with Outrigger at the start of the race, but put a small gap between them at the first change about a half-hour in. From there the defending champs never trailed, and concerned themselves with covering Outrigger's line of approach, constantly looking over their shoulders.
"We pretty much covered them, because we knew they've got a lot of local knowledge," Holmes said. "With them in sight of us, we knew we had to keep covering them because we knew we had the speed in the boat and we didn't want to be making tactical errors. We probably went a little more south than we wanted to, but that was just to cover them.
"It's always harder to stay at the top than get there, but we kept that in mind all year and trained hard. We knew that as the race went on, that we had the strength, and that we had the skills."
Once on the homestretch along Waikiki, Mooloolaba realized it had a strong chance to break the record and went for it with all remaining strength. The crew even made a late change shortly before rounding the outside buoy off of Hilton Hawaiian Village Pier, so they could get fresh paddlers in for the last charge to the beach.
"It wasn't a comfortable race; we kept pushing the whole way," Saultry said. "But it was very satisfying. I actually got to sit in the front of the boat -- which I don't get to do a lot -- and stroke across the line. It was fantastic."