Constable Raanj Rapana, front left of the raft, and her teammates power their way to winning the overall women’s title at the International Rafting Federation’s 2024 World Championships in Bosnia.
The Kawerau constable has previously represented New Zealand and taken out titles in dragon boating, waka ama and touch rugby. Now, she has added a second world rafting championship gold medal to her collection – she was among the R6 women’s crew that topped the podium in 2019, just before she joined Police.
The New Zealand women’s open crew of Raanj, Kelly Wood, Denise Martin and Nikki Whitehead joined 400 other competitors from 20 countries at the International Rafting Federation’s 2024 World Championships in Banja Luka, Bosnia from May 27 to June 2.
Raanj says despite three of the Kiwi women being able to qualify for the masters division – “age is just a number” – their goal was to win all four of their events.
“We were very confident in our skills and paddling power and gave it a good nudge,” she says.
Day one - Sprint
The time trial sees teams negotiate a grade 3-4 rapid, finishing off with a final sprint down a stretch of flat river. The women started the champs off strong, taking gold ahead of Japan and the United States.
Day two - Head to head
New Zealand went in as favourites but suffered a misfortune. The crew’s raft popped in the final after Japan nudged them into jagged rocks. Raanj says it was a disappointing way to lose the final, but they still secured the silver medal. Three other rafts also popped that day, which is unusual. After day two, New Zealand were sitting in second place overall.
Day three - Slalom
Two runs to get the best times negotiating the right path in and out of gates. Touches or missed gates incur time penalties. After the first round, New Zealand were in first place, but the second run was “a little disappointing, getting pushed downriver negotiating a crossing not as well as we intended”. The women fought hard to paddle up a strong current and eddy to continue on, making all the gates and finishing in sixth. The first run was still good enough for them to take the silver medal. The Czech women had a smooth run, nudging the Kiwis out of first place by a few seconds. Australia came third.
Day four - Downriver
With the second placing in the slalom, New Zealand went into the last day of racing in first place overall and favourites to take out the 14km event. “We remained focused as we wanted to finish strong. We had a goal to get off the start line fast, get into the lead and hold it, which we achieved, extending our lead over the course and finishing over a minute from the next raft.” First place to New Zealand again ahead of Japan and the United States.
“So, despite not getting the clean sweep, with our consistency on the podium, we were crowned overall world champions,” Raanj says.
Next on the agenda for Raanj is a trip to Hawaii to compete with a Kiwi crew in the 62km Na Wahine O Ke Kai World Championship canoe race at the end of September.
The 10-person changeover race for women crosses the open sea from Molokai across the Kaiwi Channel to Oahu and takes about six hours. “It is a prestigious race for a paddler,” says Raanj.
