Leanne Stanley, an athlete with the Kelowna Paddle Centre, is “over the moon” after participating in the iconic Maui to Molokai downwind race in Hawaii.
Stanley finished the approximately 40 kilometre race in three hours, eight minutes and 38.35 seconds.
“I’m super stoked with how I performed,” said Stanley. “The fact that I came home with a medal is a bonus.”
Stanley was the seventh woman overall to finish in the solo outrigger canoe class and was third in her age group.
The Maui to Molokai race sees paddlers navigate the channel between Maui and Molokai, facing ocean paddling conditions including swell, wind, waves and currents.
“Conditions were big. They were fast,” said Stanley. “We also had a few sections where there was an absolute downpour of rain and even starting off we couldn’t see the island ahead of us that we were going to because of the cloud and fog.”
Stanley used the race as a training event to help prepare for the upcoming 51.4-kilometre Molokai 2 Oahu race on May 4, 2019.
“My whole goal going down for this event was to get experience because I didn’t know what I didn’t know. But now I have a better idea of how can I better prepare next time around,” she said. “Finishing the race I still felt strong. I felt I could go longer.”
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