Two elite female Kayakers Moeri Ogata and Mihana Shishido from Japan have came to Victoria over our summer months to make use of our good weather and fierce competition.
Both girls competed at the Victorian Sprint Championships and Mihana also competed at the Australian Sprint Championships and the Australian/Oceania Marathon championships. At the Victorian Sprint Championships the pair raced in a double together in the wk2 200m event and were victories. Mihana was also very successful at both the Australian sprint and marathon championships especially at the marathon championships where she placed 3rd.
Their Australian coach Robert Lee invited both of the girls to come and train with him in Australia and he spoke of there potential saying Mihana’s objective is to be successful at the 1st Japanese national team selection trial to be held on the last weekend of March at Kagawa. A 4 week training camp was devised to take advantage of the warm weather in Australia and to compete in as many races as possible, including the SA State Titles, the Victorian Sprint Titles and the National Sprint and Marathon Championships. A variety of activities including running, hiking, gym, kayak paddling & surf ski paddling filled each day, coupled with 2 interstate road trips and some local sightseeing ensured a busy schedule. Mihana’s specialty is the 200m event, so training, technique & race plan improvements are focussed on the short event. She is 20 years old, so her longer term focus is clearly on Tokyo 2020.
Moeri only had a limited timeframe for her Australian trip and needed to return to Japan a couple of days following the Victorian Sprint Tiles at Lake Wendouree. She is more suited to the 500m event (and possibly marathon, although Japan do not conduct proper marathon events.) She was delighted to win the WK2 200m event at Lake Wendouree with Mihana, especially when the stroke rate dictated by Mihana was much higher than she was used to. Moeri may not have any long term objectives in kayaking, but lives for the experience of participation and teamwork. Her university studies at the Tokyo Women’s College of Physical Education will hopefully lead her to a career in children’s education.
The girls have provided some exciting racing and excellent competition for our national paddlers and we wish them all the best in the future.
Thank you to Dean Jones for the photo of Mihani competing in the marathon championships.
