Bronze world crown for Queenstown’s Queen of Waka Ama

At 76, Queenstown’s Queen of Waka Ama Francie Piacun has brought home a prestigious bronze crown, part of the 75-Plus age-group Kiwi team to win bronze at the World Waka Ama Sprints Championships in Singapore late last month.

Francie, who not only competes and paddles internationally for New Zealand, coaches herself and her national team, and also coaches two U19 Wakatipu High School girls’ teams, one U16 girls’ team and one U16 boys’ team. All of this on top of working full-time as manager of Romer Gallery in Queenstown.

NZ was among 30 countries and 3000 paddlers competing in Singapore, sending a contingent of around 500 paddlers aged from U16’s to 80-plus, Francie and her NZ 75-Plus Women’s teammates fighting off fierce competition from their biggest rivals Hawaii who took gold. “We did very well to stack up against them,” a delighted Francie says.

The Canadians pipped them to the post for second, but Francie says it was a huge accomplishment for the Kiwis to place third in the World V12-500 Double Hull event.

Paddling in 35°C every day, she says “the heat was the killer. We arrived five days early and trained for three or four days at Sentosa Island. I was the only one in our team from the South Island so the hardest thing for me was contending with the humidity and heat.” The organisers also ensured they all wore life jackets too, which she says they don’t normally do. “The sweat was pouring off us. We were wringing out our T-shirts after the race,” Francie grins.

NZ sent two 75-Plus teams, some of the second team joining Francie’s crew for the Double Hull bronze event. Francie and her team also won silver in 2024 at Hilo, Hawaii, in the same event.

Francie was one of three Queenstowners to compete last month. Partner Leon Williams part of the Men’s 70-Plus crew, five members from Dunedin, made it to a final and one of Francie’s young U16 star paddlers, Sarah Nai, part Māori, part Tongan, represented Tonga at the event. “They got to the finals. She did very well. She’s 15 and was in the U19 category,” Francie says, proudly.

NZ has put in a bid to host the World Waka Ama Sprint Championships at Lake Karapiro in 2029 and Francie’s aiming to be there.
Turning 77 in November, age is no barrier to Francie, whose next focus is the World Long Distance Waka Ama Championships in Rarotonga. “I will be 80 then,” she smiles.