Emily Willock has been appointed as a Performance Coach with Canoe Racing New Zealand, stepping up after three years as National Development Coach Lead.
The move places Willock inside CRNZ's daily high-performance environment, where she will provide direct coaching support to HP athletes including Aimee Fisher and Finn Murphy.
Her tenure as National Development Lead laid solid groundwork. Willock drove athlete progression through pathway programmes, advanced coach development, and tightened the connection between the pathway and high performance. CRNZ noted she had "built trusted relationships across the system, created environments where people can thrive and achieve their potential and has demonstrated strong capability in athlete development, technical coaching, and leadership."
The results during that period back it up. New Zealand won the Asia Pacific Sprint Cup in 2026, the first time the country had claimed the trophy. At the 2026 ICF Junior and U23 World Championships, the NZ team produced one of its best-ever campaigns, highlighted by a junior gold medal and nine top-ten results.
With Willock moving into the HP coaching team, CRNZ will advertise the National Pathway Lead position alongside a newly created Pathway Coordinator role. Both roles are aimed at strengthening the development system and keeping the pipeline intact across participation, athlete development, coach development, and high performance through to LA 2028 and beyond.
