The Star: February 28, 2019

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Thursday February 28 2019 41
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Five golds in a knee brace
• By Gordon Findlater
WINNING FIVE gold medals
at a national championship is
hard enough.
However, promising kayaker
Olivia Brett did just that while
wearing a leg brace after tearing
her medial collateral ligament.
Brett, 17, dominated the under-18
girls division at the New
Zealand Canoe Sprint Championships
last weekend and has
now been selected to compete in
the Asia Pacific Sprint Cup on
Lake Karapiro in May.
Last month she tore the
ligament in her left knee while
walking up a hill at a training
camp at Lake Brunner. The
injury normally takes between
six weeks and three months to
fully heal but because kayaking
is a linear sport – meaning she
didn’t need to move her knee inwards
– she was able to compete.
“It was very painful when I
was competing but they told it
couldn’t get any worse so it was
up to me whether it was too
painful or not,” said Brett.
The decision to push through
the pain barrier resulted in gold
medals in the under-18 K1 200,
K1 500, K2 200, K2 500 and K4
500 events.
After representing New
Zealand in May her attention
will turn to the ICF junior and
under-23 canoe sprint world
championships in Romania in
August.
Last year she competed in the
under-18 division at the world
championships in Bulgaria. She
surpassed her own expectations
to qualify for the K1 200 A
final, where she placed ninth.
This year her coach Paul Fidow
believes Brett is on track to be a
serious contender.
Her five gold medals at nationals
were part of 22 golds won
by the Arawa Canoe Club. The
haul gave the club the honour
of being the best in the country.
Brett’s father Steve also got in on
the act by winning gold in the
FAMILY EFFORT: Olivia and Steve Brett show off their
medal haul from the New Zealand Canoe Sprint
Championships.
1000m race in the 55 and over
men’s masters division.
Steve Brett is a former New
Zealand volleyball rep and also
played in the National Basketball
League in the 1980s for
Palmerston North. However, he
had no background in kayaking
before joining the sport not long
after Olivia.
“I started kayaking when
I would take Olivia down to
training. I thought I can’t go
anywhere so I may as well have a
crack myself,” he said.
The family’s strong sporting
genes don’t stop there. Steve’s
son and Olivia’s half-brother
is former Crusaders and Blues
first-five Stephen Brett, who now
lives in France.
“He actually came to junior
NO HOLDING
BACK: Olivia
Brett won five
national sprint
kayak titles
while wearing
a leg brace
after tearing
her medial
collateral
ligament.
PHOTO: JAMIE
TROUGHTON/
DSCRIBE
MEDIA ​
worlds last year to watch with
his family. It was cool to see
him,” said Brett.
Olivia also isn’t limited to
being talented in just kayaking.
She started gymnastics from a
young age and represented New
Zealand in Hawaii at the age
of 11. However, her promising
career was cut short at the age of
12 with a hip injury.
“My parents said I should find
something else to stay active.
They said why don’t you give
kayaking a go. I went down to
have a go and I’ve loved it ever
since,” said Brett.
After taking up the sport she
had just four weeks of training
before attending her first
national championships where
she won three golds in the tyro
(under 13) division.
The long term goal for Brett is
to follow in the footsteps of Lisa
Carrington and compete at the
Olympics.
“I really want to go to the
Olympics. The K1 200 would be
my goal,” said Brett.
With the ability to dominate
at a national level while injured
you wouldn’t bet against her
chances.
in brief
Success for
Canterbury golfers
Canterbury players dominated
the South Island strokeplay
championships at St Clair Golf
Club over the weekend. Men’s
winner Kazuma Kobori had
a resounding seven-stroke
victory finishing 14-under par
with rounds of 68, 66, 65 and
71. The winner of the women’s
title was Hyun Jeong Lee who
also finished 14-under par with
rounds of 73, 67, 70, 72.
Heptathlon gold
for Collerton
Former St Andrew’s College
student Ben Collerton broke
both the Texas State University
and Sun Belt Conference
records when he won a gold
medal in the heptathlon
at the Sun Belt Indoor
Championships. Collerton
outpaced the competition
with a score of 5,379 overall. It
exceeding his record from the
previous year of 5,115 points.
Semi-finals for
men’s tennis
The finalists in the Canterbury
Premier Interclub men’s tennis
competition will be found this
weekend. Saturday’s semifinals
will see top qualifiers
Waimari host Te Kura Hagley
Park. Meanwhile, Cashmere –
who have won five consecutive
titles – will host Elmwood.
Local players make
Rams squad
The Canterbury Rams have
signed two local players ahead
of the NBL season in the form
of former Christchurch Boys’
High School guard Nathan
Campbell and former Burnside
High School guard/forward
Toby Gillooly. The Rams begin
their NBL season at home
against the Wellington Saints
at Horncastle Arena on April
27.
Time to rethink format for NZ Open
WILL TODAY’S young
generation of golfing fans ever
see the sport’s elite play on New
Zealand soil?
Considering it’s now been 17
years since Tiger Woods competed
in our premier event the
New Zealand Open.
Today the tournament begins
at The Hills and Millbrook
where for the past six years the
main selling point of the event
has been an opportunity to
watch people who specialise in
a sport outside of golf – usually
former cricketers – pick up the
clubs.
You could say the NZ Open
has become a hybrid of a top
flight tournament and a sport
team’s end-of-season booze trip
to Queenstown.
Maybe it’s a sign of the times,
attendance numbers and ticket
prices at Hagley Oval this summer
would suggest we’re also
now more interested in watching
rugby players play cricket than
international cricketers.
If that’s the case why not scrap
the professional element at the
One-eyed Cantab
Gordon Findlater
gordon.findlater@starmedia.kiwi
NZ Open all together and turn
the event into our own take on
The Match which was played
between Woods and Phil Mickelson
in Las Vegas in November.
We could have a series of highly
anticipated transtasman match
play line ups . . . Ricky Ponting v
Stephen Fleming; Shane Warne
v Brendon McCullum; John Key
v one of Australia’s 10 former
prime ministers from the past 12
months and Scott Kuggeleijn v
an NRL team.
It’s sad to say but something
along those lines is probably
becoming more likely than a
move being made to attract the
likes of a Woods, Jordan Speith,
Brooks Koepka, Dustin Johnson
or Mickelson.
An important thing to
remember here is that while
Woods was a one-off, a number
of golfers inside the world’s top-
50 competing in our national
tournament was regular in years
gone past – yes, we do have to go
back a while.
It’s worth noting that other
media I’ve seen this week promoting
the event are using the
appearance of former US Open
champion Geoff Ogilvy as the
drawcard for the event. Yes he’s
won a major and was a regular in
the world’s top-10. However, they
failed to mention he’s currently
ranked 983 in the world and
hasn’t spent a week in the top-
100 since 2015.
Unfortunately, as a fan of golf
in this country I’ve had little
interest in watching our premier
event for at least a decade now.
Never fear though with relatively
cheap flight to the United
States these days I’d rather
head stateside to yell something
absurd moment after Tiger has
sent a bomb down the fairway.