It was an action packed day at the 2021 Paddle Australia Canoe Sprint Championships, with competitors going head to head across 73 races.
The day started with the endurance 1000m events, before finishing up with the 200m sprint events and much loved Mixed K2.
But it was the Canoe Sprint races that caught the attention of onlookers, with athletes impressing right across the board.
Australia’s first Olympic bound female Canoe Sprint athletes Bernadette Wallace and Josie Bulmer led the contingent, finishing on the podium in both the C1 200 and C2 200.
Wallace, who trains at West Lakes every day, said it’s been great to be able to showcase her sport to her local family and friends.
“It’s been really good to have everyone come down – our family, our neighbours…even my puppy dog got to see Nationals!” Wallace said.
“It’s so good to have it here because these are the people that have seen us train every day and they get to come down and see what we do and meet the rest of the team,” she said.
Wallace also said that the perfect weather has also been an added bonus of racing at home.
“I think it’s been a great week for West Lakes – last week was crazy so West Lakes has really put it on for everyone visiting and it’s been such a good week so far,” she said.
Wallace’s paddling partner Bulmer said the team are so excited to be back on the water competing against one another, just 63 days out from the Tokyo Olympics.
“It’s so nice to be back racing – it’s been hard this year, we haven’t had the opportunity to race that much,” Bulmer said.
“It’s so good to have the whole team back together too, it’s been so long not being with them.
“We got to see them briefly in Sydney in March, but it feels really cool to all be racing in the same spot again,” she said.
With international racing underway, Bulmer said it’s been interesting to keep watch of their competitors.
“We definitely have been watching the international races, we will be up against a lot of those people soon,” Bulmer said.
“We both obviously also have a love for the sport, so we want to see how everyone else is going as well, and see what we have to look forward to racing against in Tokyo,” she said.
QUICK LINKS
The livestream will be back online tomorrow! Catch every race of day four via the Paddle Australia Facebook page – click here
For full results from day three – click here
To view the race schedule – click here
