Canoe Racing New Zealand name new coach

Photo: PhotoSport / Steve McArthur

Canoe Racing New Zealand have promoted Craig Mustard to coach of the men’s kayak squad ahead of next year’s Paris Olympics.

Mustard joined the CRNZ coaching team in 2019 as the national development coach and became more involved in the men’s high performance programme as assistant coach in September of last year.

He has vast international coaching experience, leading campaigns at junior, senior and Olympic level for South Africa during both the Rio and Tokyo Olympic cycles.

Mustard replaces Tim Brabants who is a fully qualified doctor and is returning to medicine.

Brabants joined the CRNZ High Performance coaching team in January 2020 and has since grown his men’s squad from 6 to 10 paddlers and led the team through the Covid pandemic and Olympic postponement.

“I am really honoured to take over the role of men’s lead coach and continue the great work that Tim has been doing with the men’s squad as we work towards qualifying later this year at the World Championships and then onto the Paris Olympics,” Mustard said.

“2023 is going to be a busy year for everyone involved and I really believe we have the best coaching team that you can put together all working together for the benefit of our athletes.”

With Mustard’s move vacating his role leading the Development Pathway, CRNZ performance coach Emily Willock has stepped into the role of national development coach.

Willock has been involved as a CRNZ pathway coach for the past few years, and in 2022 was selected to join the High Performance Sport NZ Te Hāpaitanga programme, an 18-month holistic coach development initiative designed to enable more women to pursue and maintain a career in high performance coaching in New Zealand.