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Celebrating success: Elise Legarth

Sprint kayaker Elise Legarth is determined to achieve her Olympic dreams in her chosen sport.

The problem is - as Hawke's Bay's national under-18 K1 500m kayaking champion has discovered - dreams do come at a price.

It is costing the 17-year-old Havelock North High year 13 student $6500 to compete at the 2015 Junior and U23 Canoe Sprint World Championships in Portugal in July.

Although kayaking is an Olympic sport, her trip to the world championships with the six- member national U18 girls' team has to be "self-funded".

Legarth said combining her final year of school studies with 11 training sessions a week - eight on Clive River with her coach Ben Bennett and three gym sessions with strength and conditioning coach, Craig McDougall - meant she did not even have time for a part-time job.

But she was not going to let money get in the road of her competing at the world champs.

“It has been my goal since I began kayaking. I have been given the K1 500m spot, which I'm very excited about racing but I have absolutely no idea how I will go. I am also racing in the K4 500m which is the priority boat and the goal is to make an A final," Legarth said.

She narrowly missed selection for last year's junior worlds, when Canoe Racing New Zealand (CRNZ) only took a K2 crew.

But her results in 2015 meant it was impossible for selectors to overlook her this year.

At February's national championships at Lake Karapiro, which were held in conjunction with the Oceania Championships, Legarth won the K1 500m final and teamed with Shani Clark from Christchurch to win the U18 K2 200m and 500m titles. She also medalled in the K4 500m and K1 200m events and the very next weekend, raced in Australia's Canoe Sprint Grand Prix, where her NZ K4 boat came second in the U18 500m final.

She was determined to impress at the junior worlds in Portugal, as she sought to claim a berth at either of the next two Olympics - though the 2020 Games in Tokyo were a 'more realistic' goal, she said.

"I have been selected in Canoe Racing New Zealand's 'Paddle to Podium' programme which looks at preparing us for [the 2020 Games] but before then, the goal is to make the U23 team next year, " said Legarth, who would not care which event she raced in if she made it to Olympics. "Anything would be awesome!" she said. - The Hastings Mail

 

 

4 October 2017

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