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The 2025 PA Canoe Wildwater Championships will run from Friday 10 January to Sunday 12 January, with athletes taking to the water in Mersey River, Tasmania.
Wildwater athlete Matt Dalziel has been competing in the championships for 20 years and is looking forward to a positive weekend of racing.
“As a wildwater racer you don’t get many opportunities to paddle on good water against good paddlers in Australia,” Dalziel said.
“You get maybe one or two chances a year to compete at home and then you go overseas, so what I’m most looking forward to is the opportunity to paddle against solid competitors on good water.
“Mersey River is a course we haven’t used in a little while, and it’s really iconic because it’s just so continuous, it’s just a great little river.
“It is not hard to get down but it can be quite hard to do very well as there is a lot going on, which makes the event attractive and good runs are even more satisfying.”
Analysing the conditions, Matt’s goal ahead of this weekend’s competition is to leave nothing in the tank, and putting his speed to the test.
“The water is going to be lower this year so we can’t really look at any previous times as a benchmark,” he said.
“I lost a little bit of speed in the middle of the year when I was in Europe, but hopefully I can keep up with all the other guys competing.
“But at the end of the day, I think what everyone wants is to have good lines.
“In wildwater racing you have to use whatever strength and power you’ve got over the distance.
“You want to get to the end thinking you couldn’t have done any more.
“Because then if someone beats you and you’ve done everything you could, there is nothing more you could’ve done.
“That’s how you want to feel coming out of a race, but you don’t want to get beaten and feel like you could’ve gone harder.”
Paddle Australia wants to wish all athletes competing the best of luck in the Canoe Wildwater Championships this weekend.
To keep up to date with results from the 2025 Canoe Wildwater Championships, follow the link link https://paddle.org.au/paddlesports/wildwater-canoeing/#1528487779609-6cc98d1f-e1c5