On Saturday 13th August George Thomas will depart Auckland Airport, bound for Szeged, Hungary.
He will be traveling 34 hours (64 hour round trip!) via Los Angeles, Frankfurt and Budapest to represent New Zealand in the ICF Canoe Sprint World Championships http://szeged2011.com/.
George will be taking part in the V1 Para-canoeing event. The second time this event has been
included into the Canoe world championships.

Last year at this event George placed 3rd in the final bringing home a bronze medal. We know George has been training hard and is looking to deliver another competitive showing at this year’s event.

In 2005, 2 days before the Waka Ama Sprint Nationals, George was on his way home from training when his car was hit by a drunk driver. George was lucky to escape the accident alive and his permanent injuries have been debilitating. As a result of the accident his legs were broken in over 200 places, his ankles had to be permanently fused, his pelvis plated and screwed and his legs have $25,000 worth of metal holding them together. He went through much pain but never gave up the sport of Waka Ama that he loves and is deeply passionate about.

In March 2006, (only a year after his accident) George won the first Adaptive (Para) V1 500m race at the International Va’a Federation World Sprint Championships, held here in New Zealand (Lake Karapiro) and then defended that title 2 years later in Sacramento.

Last year George competed at the IVF World Championships in the Para (adaptive) V1 500m event and again won the gold medal.

George is also an accomplished coach and has coached many junior teams from Rotorua and surrounding regions to National Secondary School title championships, National club championships and gold medals at World Sprint Championships.

Over the past 3 years the International Va’a Federation and the International Canoe Federation have been working closely together to try to include V1 into the Para-canoe programme. The V1 (‘V’ short for Va’a – the Tahitian term for single person Waka Ama or Outrigger canoe) is a Polynesian watercraft that is 1000’s of years old. It has an ama or outrigger attached to the left hand side of the hull , making the vessel very stable and the ideal craft for adaptive or Paralympic paddlers.

There are many countries who now compete in Waka Ama on the world stage and Paralympic numbers are growing too, Italy, Hawaii, England, Canada, California, Australia all have sent paddlers to compete in Para (adaptive) races since 2004.

And now that V1 has been officially approved as an event at the 2016 Rio Paralympic Games! A very exciting development for our sport. http://www.paralympic.org/Sport/IF_Sports/Para_Canoe/ We hope to see a growth in the number of opportunities available for Para athletes in New Zealand through Waka Ama.

The New Zealand Canoe Federation and the International Canoe Federation have been very supportive and the NZ Waka Ama community are appreciative of the efforts they have gone to, to assist George to get to Hungary.

Nga Kaihoe O Aotearoa fully support George in his journey which you can follow on www.wakaama.co.nz

Good Luck George! Kia Kaha!