HANALEI — The Hawaiian Canoe Club of Maui won its seventh consecutive title yesterday at the Hawaiian Canoe Racing Association State Championship Regatta Saturday at Hanalei Bay. The team won with 359 points over the heavily favored Lanikai Canoe Club
HANALEI — The Hawaiian Canoe Club of Maui won its seventh consecutive title yesterday at the Hawaiian Canoe Racing Association State Championship Regatta Saturday at Hanalei Bay.
The team won with 359 points over the heavily favored Lanikai Canoe Club of O‘ahu’s 328.
Having registered the most crews (38) compared to the other clubs, the undefeated Lanikai had been hyped up to be the team to dethrone Hawaiian. They were the last team to win a state championship before Hawaiian’s long run.
“Unfortunately we fell behind a little bit in the beginning,” said Lanikai coach Dave Smith. “But the competition from the Neighbor Islands is really strong. Hawaiian’s been doing real well and they just got ahead of us.”
Hawaiian broke out early with several top-five finishesand two first-place finishes — the girls 14 and 16 divisions.
Lanikai didn’t have a top finish until the men’s novice “B” division won in the tenth event.
Still, Smith was optimistic that they could pull off.
“Our strength has been our consistency throughout the day, so hopefully we’ll do better,” Smith said.
Hawaiian head coach Diane Ho was keeping a close watch on Lanikai’s consistent performances.
“If they consistently finish fifth, they can still win by a margin depending on how we finish in all the other races,” she said.
Ho also said her focus was not on the fact that Lanikai had more teams and that all the hype surrounding Lanikai may have worked to Hawaiian’s benefit.
“I’m glad the focus wasn’t on us,” she said. “It caused us to relax. We’ve been in their position before — where we’ve had more crews than the other teams. This is not about how many crews you have.”
Ho just stood back and watched as Hawaiian consistently pumped out strong finishes.
“This gave us the opportunity to kind of prove that it’s about the quality of your team,” Ho said. “I think it’s a testament to our sport. It’s a testament to our competition on Maui. I’m just stoked about what we did as a club.”
Ho then began to praise the Neighbor Island clubs.
“I’m not only stoked with what we’ve done, but it’s not just us. It’s the Neighbor Islands performing well,” she said.
She’s right. Of the 39 events, the Neighbor Islands combined for 25 first-place finishes to O‘ahu’s 14.
Hawaiian was also the first recipient of the Michael Tongg perpetual award. Tongg was the Hawaiian Canoe Racing Association’s president for 20 years. He passed away last month. Yesterday’s regatta was dedicated to him and a customized koa paddle was made in his honor.
It was awarded to the winner of the men’s senior division.
Jacob Abeytia of Hawaiian’s men’s senior team was one of the paddlers who accepted the award.
“It feels good. We know how much Michael meant to this sport and how much he’s done for it,” Abeytia said. “I get chicken skin thinking about it. It’s an honor for us and it’s an honor to represent Maui and perform this well.”
There were approximately 3,000 paddlers in the competition from 57 clubs across the state.
The clubs are divided into four division: AAAA Division (21-39 entries), AAA (13-20), AA (7-12) and A (1-7).
Big clubs such as Hawaiian, Lanikai and the Kailua Canoe Club competed in the AAA division.
Hui Lanakila of the O‘ahu Hawaiian Canoe Racing Association won the AAA division with 152. The Waikiki Beach Boys won the AA division with 122. The Kawaihae Canoe Club won the A division with 49.
• Lanaly Cabalo, sports editor, can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 237) or lcabalo@kauaipubco.com.
