Local Batemans Bay paddler Ian Castell-Brown has returned from the World Masters Games in New Zealand with his share of "brass", being two gold and six silver medals from eight kayaking events.
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The World Masters Games are held every four years and for 2017 the host city was Auckland where the wonderful Kiwis organised events for 28,000 athletes from 100 countries. There were 21,000 medals awarded to athletes.
The Games were held from April 24-30 with individual sporting disciplines scattered across the city and suburbs.
The kayaking events were held on a suburban crater waterway, Lake Pupuke, a very picturesque and at times a challenging venue, according to Ian.
On the morning of his first paddle, the lake ran true to local form and blew at 15-20 knots with extremely disturbed water caused by offshore wind and wave rebound. The capsize rate for competitors in this marathon event was reported at 60 per cent.
While athletes normally contest events in their own age group, Ian did four at age 75+ in a K1 for a gold and three silver and also four against kayakers aged 65-69 in a K2 for the same medal outcome.
At times racing was close with three of Ian's silver medals from margins of 0.145sec, two seconds and four seconds across events with distances of 17km, 9km, 1,000m, 500m and 200m.
While in Auckland Ian enjoyed his membership the Waitemata Canoe and Multisport Club and the warmth and friendship of its kayaking fraternity.
His partner for K2 events was Waitemata paddler, Michael Famularo, aged 65, who Ian said was a real “powerhouse”. Michael gave up his entries as a ski paddler and Ian hopes he thought that worthwhile given the outcome.
Michael had done a Games marathon just before the paddling and Ian said he was a “pretty sore lad!”
Ian said he himself went into the Games “underdone” not having trained for a month after his two gold in the Australian Titles owing to sickness.
Prior to the Games, Ian and another local paddler, Allan Newhouse, enjoyed success at State and National levels combining for a gold and a silver medal. Both paddlers also won individual medals.
Both Allan and Ian race as members of the Burley Griffin Canoe Club, based in Canberra and together with another "local lad", Graham Ison, drove a combined distance of 27,000 km to compete in Paddle NSW and title events last season.