Cana Peek The Taste of Sweet Success
Cana Peek The Taste of Sweet Success Some call it ‘Sweet Sixteeen’. But for Epworth schoolgirl Cana Peek, it’s more like the sweet taste of success at 16.
EPWORTH Independant HIGH SCHOOL for girls
The talented teenager surprised not only her friends, but also herself, by finishing in second spot overall in the recent Dusi Canoe Marathon, behind a woman almost double her age – 30-year-old Laura O’Donoghue. “I just didn’t think I was going to position that well because all the other women are so strong,” admitted Cana once the magnitude of her achievement had sunk in. “They train a lot and I didn’t think I was going to be right up there with them. I also thought my sister was going to be with me as well and then on the first day she got ‘Dusi guts’, so I just kept going.”
Cana describes her older sister Jordan as: “My coach, my secret to success, my role model, everything.” She also has Jordan (who finished fifth overall in this year’s Dusi) to thank for her introduction to the sport. “I came to Epworth in Grade 5 and started paddling in a guppy [type of boat]. I started getting involved because of my sister, who was in Grade 8 at Epworth at the time. “She taught me everything I know – from how to sit in a boat to how to go down rapids to how to run with a boat.” It is the younger Peek’s incredible running strength that saw her powering into second place on the first day of the three-day Dusi, making her move at the first portage. “It’s quite a long portage – I think it’s the longest one, so I tried to run as fast as I could and then I caught up all the way to second place,” she explained.
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Game On Magazine, April: Issue 15, 2015