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Point Wells resident Matt Anderson, 35, has won first place in the 2020 10km Stand Up Paddle Board (SUP) World Championship, after beating 299 world-ranked boarders.
The virtual competition took place last month in place of the Euro Series event which would have taken place in Spain.
Paddlers were required to wear GPS watches and upload their data online. The fastest time was the winner.
The competition allowed boarders all over the world one week to complete a 10km paddle, so they could choose ideal weather conditions.
“We are used to paddling with 60-100 competitors at a time, so it was unusual,” Anderson says.
“It made me push even harder because I couldn’t see how well I was racing compared to others. I just kept looking at my speed and trying to push harder.”
Anderson came first in the world event and claimed his first international title, adding to his first-place victories in the last two seasons of the New Zealand SUP beach series.
His training mates from the Orewa SUP group also placed well with Graeme Taylor winning the 40+ category, Scott Keon winning the masters category, Jan Dunlop finishing second in the masters and Brianna Orams coming ninth in the women’s event.
Each of them train on Saturdays at Orewa Beach. They paddled together for the competition so they could push each other to excel.
Anderson says he will compete in Europe next year for the real, rather than the virtual, event and is counting the win as great training for the upcoming New Zealand summer series.
