With continued injury rehabilitation for Zack Mutton, we are pleased to announce that Jack Dangen has been called in to the Senior K1 Team for the remaining World Cups and the World Championships in La Seu d’Urgell, Spain, from September 25 to 29.

Dangen has been in excellent form so far this season, posting a career-high 22nd as top Kiwi in the previous round of the World Cup, in Ljubljana, Slovenia, and 33rd in the U23 World Championships in Krakow, Poland.

He will join the men’s Team for a training camp in La Seu late next week, before warming up in the round 5 of the World Cup in Prague, September 6-8, and then back to La Seu for the main event. Dangen will join Callum Gilbert and Finn Butcher in the men’s K1 team, with Ben Gibb in men’s C1, and Luuka Jones and Hannah Thomas both doubling in women’s K1 and C1. Patrick Washer will be aiming to return from his own injury to join Gibb in men’s C1.

The 2019 ICF Canoe Slalom World Championships are an integral part of the pathway to the Tokyo Olympic Games next year, being the first step in the ICF’s allocation of national quota places, and in CSNZ’s own Olympic selection. The Kiwis will be aiming to finish within the top 18 nations in K1 or 11 nations in C1 to earn a quota place for New Zealand.

The Olympic connotations made Mutton’s self-withdrawal all the more difficult and honourable for the young man from Kaituna, who just last year was threatening the podium at World Junior level, and last summer came close to winning the NZ senior selection trials. With his medical team, though, his sights are firmly set on uncompromised return to his best, in time for the full Senior and Olympic selection trials in February 2020. CSNZ’s K1M High Performance Coach, Pierre Labarelle, was quick to praise Mutton, for “the maturity of his decision and his efforts to rehab to the very best he can. Zack was excellent at the start of the season, and we wish him good luck and full support for the next step”.

Before Prague and La Seu, round 4 of the ICF Canoe Slalom World Cup will take place in Markkleeberg, Germany, from August 30 to September 1, where Callum Gilbert will be New Zealand’s sole representative.

Article added: Friday 09 August 2019