A gold medal by Wanaka’s Annabel Anderson on the penultimate day of the 2017 ISA World Stand Up Paddle and Paddleboard Championship sees New Zealand go into the final day and relay race in third place overall.
The action packed day of racing at Vorupor, Denmark held overnight (Saturday 9th September), saw Anderson take gold in the Women’s SUP Technical Race. Anderson was joined on the podium by prone paddlers Sam Shergold (Mnt) in the men’s and Jasmine Smith (Gis) in the women’s who both claimed silver.
New Zealand will compete in the relay race on the final day of the event looking to retain or advance their position on the team rankings.
Anderson was unstoppable in her final putting 37 seconds on her opponents for a comfortable win. After a slow start, Anderson picked off all of her opponents within the first of three laps.
“The start line assembly was poorly managed and getting boxed in off the start I just surfed wake up to where I wanted to position myself” said Anderson.
“I knew exactly where I wanted to make my moves and positioned myself accordingly to pounce. I knew that I could apply pressure running the sand that would hurt my competition and that my transitions into the next laps were fast. From there it was about keeping on the pressure and gaining each lap while finding whatever bumps the ocean was giving to sneak onto” added Anderson of her game plan.
Today’s performance comes on the back of Anderson’s gold in the distance race held at the start of the event.
“Both disciplines are totally different and require similar but vastly different sets of skills and training preparation” said Anderson when comparing the two.
“I came to Denmark with the hope of contributing some scores towards the team points tally. It’s been nice to be able to deliver on that to the team standing.”
New Zealand’s defending champion Penelope Strickland (Auck) could not repeat her heroic feats of 2016 finishing today’s race in twelfth place.
Earlier in the day Sam Shergold battled Australia’s Lachie Landsdown for the second race at the event securing the silver behind the Australian. The two were neck and neck the majority of the race until Landsdown caught a small bump to edge past Shergold.
“In every sport you have to make the most of every opportunity that comes your way. Milking that for every little success is what each athlete does. Lachie had the opportunity that I missed. And I struggled to make up for the mistake” said Shergold.
“I was pretty hungry to get one back after the distance race and I thought it was possible. I was a bit disappointed I didn’t but still have to be happy with second” he added.
Jasmine Smith (Gis) found herself in the same position as Shergold – battling an Australian for gold. This time 11x gold medallist Jordan Mercer was too good for Smith pushing out to a healthy win after Smith kept with her for the first of three laps.
“Yeah I am pretty happy with my result” said Smith. “I came here to win obviously but I’ll take the second place.”
Marcus Hansen (Whangarei) and Ollie Houghton (Auck) rounded out the day of action in the Men’s SUP Technical Race finishing in eighth and ninth respectively, one minute off the winning pace set by Hawaiians Mo Freitas and Connor Baxter.
“I felt like I had a good start and had a good sprint by my standards but it wasn’t good enough. I fought back throughout the race and managed to save some energy for the last run into the line. Coming to the finish I put it all out there and was completely spent at the end” Hansen said.
“The level is very high and in the future I need a faster sprint for this style of racing. I have a few ideas on how I can improve. The result was alright but I am hungry for more” added Hansen.
Hansen’s last-second push for the line came at the expense of two racers including fellow Kiwi Ollie Houghton.
“The race had such a fast start, was so hard to keep up with the front pack I was stuck at the first buoy with Mo Freitas and Lincoln Dews (Aus)” said Houghton.
“I was pretty stoked with how I performed, top ten was my extended goal and I got it so yeah, pretty happy” added Houghton.
Sunday will see the final race of the event with the team relay before the closing ceremony takes place in the afternoon.
Please see below for results from Day 6 (Saturday 9th September local time) of the 2017 ISA World Stand Up Paddle and Paddleboard Championships being held in Denmark from the 1st – 10th September.
Team Rankings
1, Australia, 13,001
2, France, 12,673
3, New Zealand, 12,338
4, Hawaii, 11,669
5, USA, 10,205
6, Brazil, 9,752
7, Denmark, 9,293
8, Italy, 9,107
9, Japan, 8,572
10, South Africa, 8,265
Men’s SUP Technical Race
1, Mo Freitas (HAW), 19.19.44
2, Connor Baxter (HAW), 19.19.64
3, Casper Steinfath (DEN), 19.29.98
4, Bruno Hasulyo (HUN), 19.38.08
8, Marcus Hansen (NZL), 20.20.84
9, Oliver Houghton (NZL), 20.21.76
Women’s SUP Technical Race
1, Annabel Anderson (NZL), 21.10.17
2, Olivia Piana (FRA), 21.47.43
3, Terrene Black (AUS), 21.59.36
4, Fiona Wylde (USA), 22.27.51
12, Penelope Armstrong (NZL), 23.37.72
Men’s Prone Paddleboard Race
1, Lachie Landsdown (AUS), 21.54.94
2, Sam Shergold (NZL), 22.08.45
3, Julien Lalanne (FRA), 22.27.73
4, Bart Schade (USA), 23.01.35
Women’s Prone Paddleboard Race
1, Jordan Mercer (AUS), 23:07:14 1000
2, Jasmine Smith (NZL), 23:56:06 860
3, Kathrine Zink (DEN), 24:18:11 730
4, Flora Manciet (FRA), 24:37:71 670
Further Information
For further information on the New Zealand Stand Up Paddle and Paddleboard Team please contact Surfing New Zealand’s Ben Kennings on 021 2278732 or email benkennings@surfingnz.co.nz.
