Paddlers coming home with 2 medals
By Suzanne Roig
Advertiser East Honolulu Writer
Team O'ahu — the six women who went to Tahiti last week with canoe paddles, a little money and a lot of rice — will return to the Islands tomorrow with two medals around their necks.
The team members, whose average age is 51, won a gold medal in the International Va'a Federation World Sprints outrigger canoe race Thursday in the 1,000 meters for women 45 years old and up. They also won a silver medal in the same division for a 500-meter race held in Bora Bora. The team has neither sponsors nor a coach.
"They are ecstatic," said Susan Heitzman, a member of the team. "They did a great job."
While her teammates were paddling for the gold at the World Sprints, Heitzman was having a blood test to see if she could receive her chemotherapy treatment. Heitzman has breast cancer, which she discovered right after the women decided in August to form a team to compete at the international regatta that draws paddlers from around the world for dozens of races.
Team members are Deborah Kasnetz, 49, of Hawai'i Kai; Laola Lake, 49, of Kaua'i; Mary Fern, 51, of Niu Valley; Tiare Richert-Finney, 52, of Nu'uanu; Ann Cundall, 56, of Makiki; Laurie Lawson, 46, of Kahala; and Heitzman, 57, who lives in Kaka'ako.
About 150 paddlers from Hawai'i participated in the World Sprints.
Communication has been difficult, Heitzman said, so she was unsure how many other medals the state received. In 1998, Hawai'i won 18 gold medals and 38 medals overall, in its best showing at the event that has been held every other year since 1984.
Before the women left, Kasnetz spoke with great optimism of bringing a medal home.
After a story appeared in The Advertiser about their goal, the women received an outpouring of support from the community.
One woman gave them a check for $1,000, an anonymous donor sent them a $2,500 cashier's check, a television station sent them airline tickets, a sunglass company gave them eye protection to take to Tahiti. Cundall's landlord cut her rent for the month of March.
The donations made it easier for the women to go to Bora Bora after having had to pay the $12,000 to travel to and enter the World Sprints, Heitzman said.
