A waka ama club based in the Marshall Islands has raised funds to send a group of paddlers to its first regional competition.

The 24th annual Micronesian Cup will be held October 18-20 in Saipan, the capital of the Northern Mariana Islands.

The Marshall Islands Canoe Paddling Federation is one of the canoe clubs participating this year, despite its limited resources.

Tatiana Shoniber is one of the association’s paddlers. She believes that they do not make enough use of their sea, despite it being in a prime location for water sports.

“We live on an island where there is so much sea, but we don’t use it. This is, so to speak, our first water sport that is really happening right now.”

The association relies on local sponsors and fundraisers to support the participation of its 20 athletes in the competition.

“This is the office of our Olympic Committee and we are constantly told that it is difficult to support us because we are not an Olympic sport. We are trying to find other sponsors.

“We’re really limited with what we have now. We only have two canoes that we use for practice, but we were able to order our own paddles. Things are moving forward slowly but surely.”

She said the association had achieved positive results in recruitment since its revival last year following its collapse in 2018.

“It’s a national level competition and we can only participate through an association… They got some canoes and my colleagues and I said ‘let’s go paddling’.”

“At first we started out very small, so that we couldn’t even fill a canoe, but now we have so many interested athletes that we have to alternate between girls and boys.”

Shoniber plans to open a clinic to encourage Tamariki to take up the sport.

“At the moment we don’t have the right size paddle, so hopefully in the future we can get smaller paddles for kids.”

The Micronesia Cup began in 1999 as a regional outrigger canoe race and is held alternately in Guam, Saipan (CNMI) and Palau.