Otago's Collier paddles to world title
Nick Collier has become the first New Zealander to win gold at the junior and under-23 canoe slalom world championships.
He claimed victory in the under-23 kayak cross in Foix, France.
Collier, 21, who hails from Alexandra but has been based in Waikato for the past four years, went one better than his silver medal at the same world championships in 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 at the Paris Olympics and a past junior and under-23 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 is the same event in which Finn Butcher, also from Alexandra, won gold 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 semifinal.
''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 Okere Falls, near Rotorua, for training.
Collier's victory came a day after fellow New Zealand paddler Oliver Puchner won silver in the canoe single final.
Puchner, from Pukehina in western Bay of Plenty, was competing at his final under-23 world championships and it was by far his best performance.
In the under-23 women's C1, Kahlia Cullwick made the semifinals, finishing 25th after also making the semifinals in the K1 event, while junior women's C1 paddler Rosie Rex made the final, finishing 11th in a big advance for her career.
— RNZ/APL
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