2004 Hamilton Island Cup Results

Updates:[Hawai'i crews triumph in Australia]

[Full Results] at HamiltonCup.com
[Brisbane Outrigger Reports]

Race Recap from Colin Bartley

Well the canoes are all gone, we’ve packed up all the gear, washed it down and put it away for another year. What a great weekend. Day 1 Friday was a classic Whitsunday brochure day, blue skys, light winds and flat water for the OC1 races. A few highlights came out of the day the biggest one was in the OC1 500m sprint for Open Men where Grant Shapcott of Ikaika finally broke the oldest standing record in the event set back in 1992 by John Foti of Hawaii. Grant took 3 seconds off the old record setting a new record of 2:09:78.

On Saturday morning we were greeted with 25-30knots of wind, rising seas and
a strong wind warning, so we went to the alternate courses for the 16km
marathons. Even though the course was now in more protected waters it was
still a challenging race with one section of wind against tide creating some
good South Head like conditions. The 500m OC6 sprints were as exciting as
ever but the most exciting race was the finish of the Open Mens OC6 marathon
in the afternoon. Team NZ/Hawaii held off a fast finishing Outrigger
Australia to win by only 1.5 seconds. This great battle was also captured on
video and can be seen on this years event DVD (excuse the plug).

Sunday morning dawned bleak and windy. While Kamoa Kalama (Team Hawaii),
Nappy Napolean (Team Anuenue Hawaiian legend) and Chris Maynard (Outrigger
Australia) entertained a packed house of 300 paddlers at the steering clinic
the rain came down outside. Karel Tresnak coach of Team NZ/Hawaii followed
with a great talk about training programmes and preparation. By the time
everyone came out of the clinics the rain had gone, the wind was blowing and
the surf was up! Who said there is no surf in the Whitsundays!! We should
have cancelled the OC6 1000m sprints and run the races straight out off the
beach and surfed back in. The waves definitely made the sprints interesting,
just ask one unfortunate crew in lane 8 that were slammed side on by a freak
wave and got flipped....ama down!!! The OC1s were having a great time at the
other end of the course with their own unofficial surfing contest.

Monday morning was clear but the wind and sea was still up so the decision
was made to go for the alternate course. Though not a popular decision for
some it is one I didn’t make lightly, of course everybody wants to do the
official course and there is a lot of prestige about doing the proper course
but it come down to safety. While I have no doubt about the ability of the
top teams to complete the course and handle nearly any conditions it is the
other 80% of competitors that I have to think about as well as my safety
officials and rescue teams on the water. So the alternative course was set
and everyone was sent up to Cid Harbour and half way to Hook Island before
turning around for the upwind bash back to Hamilton Island. I actually had a
number of crews tell me it was great to go a different way for a change and
see parts of the Whitsundays they haven’t seen before.

A great battle developed between Team NZ/Hawaii and Outrigger Australia at
the front of the field with the lead swapping many times before they reached
the halfway turn. Team NZ/Hawaii had gone into the race with only 8
paddlers, one paddler had put his shoulder out in a game of basket ball days
before and they where now about to pay for it, on the upwind slog they just
couldn’t match the power of Outrigger Australia and were eventually passed
by Ikaika before the finish. Still 3rd place with 8 paddlers is not a bad
effort. Not taking anything away from Outrigger Australia’s awesome effort
and it’s great to see them wearing the crown again. Mooloolaba Open Women
dominated their division and for the first time we had the Golden Master
Mens division competing.

All that was left now was the presentations and party. Team Hawaii took out
champion Club and the beautiful 7 foot koa paddle trophy for the Charles
Pene Spirit of Aloha award was made at the end of the presentations and was
a fitting conclusion to a great weekend. The award went to Sunset Bay Master
Women for their assistance to another team during the 16km marathon. The
number of nominations I received for this award showed us that good
sportsmanship and the Spirit of Aloha is alive and well in our sport.

All the event photos are now online including a lot that weren’t on display
over the weekend. The event DVD is having going through it’s final edit now
(30 hours of footage down to 30mins!) and will include all the results of
each final. I’d like to thank couple of people, firstly my wife Jules who
really does all the work running this event, Powerade for the increase in
prize money to $100,000, Hamilton Island Resort for all their effort in
making the event what it is and all the members of the Hamilton Island
Outrigger Club who work their asses off all weekend and still get out there
and race.

It was a great weekend and we look forward to seeing you all here next year.

Cheers

Colin Bartley
Race Director
Powerade Hamilton Island Cup
4-7 June 2004

Hamilton Island
QLD Australia 4803

Ph: (07) 4946 8436
Fax: (07) 4946 8760
email: hamcup@whitsunday.net.au
http://www.hamiltoncup.com

Posted by keizo on Thu, 06/10/2004 - 4:56am