06/09/2026
What an experience. 🇳🇿🐉
To say I’m proud of these girls would be an understatement.
What they achieved at CCWC this past week was about so much more than the results. It was the reward for months of hard work, sacrifice, commitment and belief in what we were trying to build together.
For our first time competing internationally, these girls stepped onto the world stage, lined up against some of the best crews in the world and showed that we didn’t come all this way just to make up the numbers.
We came here to compete.
The journey to get here wasn’t easy.
This training campaign had everything. Tears, sweat, sacrifices, freezing cold mornings and evenings, tough conversations, tired bodies and days where we were literally breaking ice off the boat before we could paddle.
There were plenty of opportunities to take the easier option.
These girls didn’t.
They kept turning up. They kept putting in the work. They kept backing each other, and when it came time to race, they were ready.
This was the first time our team had travelled overseas and competed internationally. We came to CCWC with one major goal:
Make a world final.
With 20 boats in our division, the girls achieved that goal and finished among the top crews in the world.
🌎 200m | 9th in the world
🌎 500m | 6th in the world
🌎 2km | 7th in the world
And they leave CCWC as the fastest crew in the Southern Hemisphere.
For a team stepping onto the international stage for the very first time, those results mean a hell of a lot.
But what excites me most is knowing how much more there is in this group.
We’ve learnt so much from this experience. About racing, preparation, pressure, ourselves and what it truly takes to compete at this level.
We’ll take those lessons home with us. We’ll keep building, keep raising our standards and keep chasing what we know this team is capable of.
We came here wanting to find out whether we could compete on the world stage.
We got our answer.
We belong here.
And this is only the beginning. 🖤🐉Bb
