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Defending her title The New Zealand Whitewater Slalom National Championships are on at Kawerau Saturday and Sunday April 11-12. The event attracts the country's top slalom kayakers, including New Zealand's first female canoe slalom Olympian, Luuka Jones, who will be defending her national title before she heads back to the summer race season in Europe. Aaron Osborne and Johann Roozenberg, who both train in Rotorua, will battle out the top men's race with some strong opposition coming from junior Callum Gibb. The event is the culmination of the season's ranking series for juniors and seniors and also is part of the selection process for the New Zealand Development Squad. There will be a large group of South Island kayakers competing in events that range from U14 level to the hotly contested Masters category. Many of the masters are in serious training for the World Masters Games in Sydney in October this year. Australians, lead by Olympian, Warwick Draper, have brought a squad of juniors to train and race in New Zealand and take on the best of the Kiwi juniors. Draper beat top Kiwi Aaron Osborne by just 0.7 seconds at the Australian Nationals, and was fourth in Beijing. Saturday's event is the Pre Nationals and teams races while Sunday is the main event for national titles. The site is the Tarawera River, Waterhouse St Reserve, Kawerau. The race schedule is NZ Canoe Slalom Pre Nationals Saturday April 11, with first runs at 11am and nationals teams and mixed C2 at 3.30pm. Sunday is the NZ Canoe Slalom Nationals. First runs at 11am, second runs at 1.30pm. By Andrew Campbell www.thesun.co.nz

Luukajones.com | Media | Articles |  Weekend Sun