Nick Collier wins paddling gold for NZ at U23 world champs

RNZ News

a day ago

Nick Collier, who has won gold for NZ in the kayak cross at the U23 world champs.
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Nick Collier has become the first New Zealander to win gold at the junior and under-23 canoe slalom world championships, with victory in the U23 kayak cross in Foix, France.
Collier, 21, who hails from Alexandra in Central Otago but has been based in Waikato for the past four years, went one better than his silver medal at the same world championships in Krakow, Poland two years ago.
In Foix, he had to overcome some strong rivals and a parochial French crowd cheering for a one-two from Titouan Castryck and Gino Benini.
Castryck, a silver medallist in the K1 kayak at the Paris Olympics and a past junior and U23 world champion, had already won the kayak slalom final in Foix but had to settle for silver in the kayak cross, in which competitors race down a whitewater course, navigating through a series of obstacles.
It's the same event that Finn Butcher, also from Alexandra, won gold in at the Paris Olympics.
"I'm just astounded," Collier told the International Canoe Federation after his win.
"It has been a really long, hard year of training.
"I narrowly missed out last year in the semi-final," he said.
"I got on the podium the year before, so it was incredible to make this comeback here in France and get on the top step of the podium this time.
"Having two French guys in the final, you could hear the crowd, it was so loud.
"You wouldn't really know who they were cheering for, but there was a really strong Kiwi contingent here. And they were all cheering me, willing me down the course.
"It was such a cool feeling."
Collier made the shift from Central Otago to Hamilton in 2021 after winning a Sir Edmund Hillary Scholarship to study at Waikato University.
He now lives in Cambridge, which is closer to to Okere Falls, near Rotorua, for training.
Collier's victory came a day after Oliver Puchner won silver in the C1 (canoe singles) final.
Puchner, from Pukehina in western Bay of Plenty, was competing at his final U23 world champs and it was by far his best performance.
He was composed in delivering a run of 92.71 to take the lead with four paddlers remaining. Only Lukas Kratochvil from Czech Republic was able to better him.
"To be sitting there with all those other guys and being in that top position was crazy," Puchner said.
"I was super stoked at the end. I was a bit emotional a couple of moments after. Now it's just disbelief. I have never made the final, I've been battling for the past couple of years to make the final, last year I was 12th.
In the U23 women's C1, Kahlia Cullwick made the semifinals, finishing 25th after also making the semis in the K1 event, while junior women's C1, Rosie Rex made the final, finishing 11th in a big advance for her career.