While Kiwi athletes are gearing up for the upcoming Olympics and Paralympics, the events’ officials are also busy preparing.
Among them is Kapiti couple Matt Warren and Karen Simpson-Warren. They’ll be heading to Tokyo to officiate at canoeing events for the Olympics and the Paralympics, respectively.
Speaking on Breakfast this morning, Warren said with about two weeks left until he travels, he’s busy with health checks.
“Things are looking really good and it’s starting to get really exciting now,” he said.
Warren said his priority was to follow processes as best he could so athletes could race as best they could.
“I’ll be one of the starters at the Olympics. So, starting the races. That’s finding all the competitors … and we have start gates. It’s just [about] making sure nobody false starts.”
He started officiating canoe races about 13 years ago when Simpson-Warren was running events with Racing NZ.
He went along to one event, but found out there weren’t any starters. He was told “you’re it”, and the rest is history.
“I think I got a bit stitched up because I spent five years out in the boat in the cold and rain from then on starting races,” Warren joked.
Despite his experience, he said he still got nervous before each race started - no matter what level of racing. But, because the process for each race was the same, it came with advantages.
“It's the same every time. That’s one of the really good things about we’ve been able to do is we can now bring back that international experience to New Zealand and we can do the same thing at our regattas here.”
One thing that made him especially nervous, though, was whenever Lisa Carrington was racing because “there’s a lot on the line”, Warren said.
Simpson-Warren said there had been “really good communication” from Sport NZ and the New Zealand Olympic Committee.
She said she’d been given an “extensive” playbook about anything that could come her way at the Paralympics, including the number of Covid-19 tests she’d need to go through. The couple are fully vaccinated against Covid-19.
The 1 NEWS Olympics reporter says it took him five-and-a-half hours to get through the airport in Tokyo. (Source: Other)
But, because she wasn’t going to be jetting off to Tokyo until the end of August, she joked she’d let her partner “go through it all first”.
Simpson-Warren is a chief judge at Paralympics canoeing events. It means she’ll be sitting in a control tower and chooses which boats get weighed to make sure they’re following the rules.
She said she was looking forward to witnessing the “phenomenal” and “absolutely spectacular” level of racing Paralympics athletes bring.
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