A Great Day at the Races
PROVISIONAL results can be found here. These do not show promotions yet, or club Hasler points.
On Sunday 30th March we hosted the first regional marathon event of the year and it was a great success. Forty-two paddlers from five clubs competed over distances of 13, 6.5 and 3.6 km on a pleasantly warm and sunny Spring afternoon (although the wind was a bit gusty at times).
Our club paddlers put in some excellent performances to ensure that we were the winning club.
Declan was our only paddler in the Geoff Sanders (3.6 km) and he left the opposition in his wake.
We had a good number of paddlers in Division 9 – for some it was their first ever race and they all acquitted themselves well. Star performers were Karl who, on only his third K1 paddle, roared through many of the higher division paddlers and is almost certain to be promoted two divisions and Matilda, in her first 6.5km race, who beat most of the Division 7 and 8 paddlers. Matilda could also be looking at promotion after this event. Hannah, Mike N and Helen also gave sterling performances
Division 8 had only three entrants. Craig took first place and is almost guaranteed promotion to Division 7 as he beat most of them on the water. Andrew came in second and might also have done enough to gain promotion.
Division 7 saw a close fight for second and third places. Graham fell behind by the turn at Castlethorpe but managed to claw his way back to gain the silver medal closely followed by John. Martin was not many seconds later and Wayne on his return to the marathon squad came in behind.
Charles and Connor had a good battle in Division 5 although Blake from Manvers left them to fight for second and third places respectively.
A number of our squad went out in doubles. Sue and Oscar fought hard to take second place in Division 7 only 29 seconds behind the winners; Alfie and Neil took out a racing canoe in Division 8 (the only boat): Hazel and Mike F tried their hand at doubles touring canoe in Division 9 and came in third. Now they need to get to grips with racing canoes to improve their position.
As well as racing we all enjoyed excellent catering and support from other members bank-side in roles including jetty supervisor, time keepers, turn marshals, car park supervisor, official photographers and support paddler for our younger competitors.
Every paddler was provided with soup and a roll by Jean and she also managed to sell a variety of snacks and drinks to both competitors and supporters
Michelle’s (times two) cake stall was a great success raising £150 for a local charity and club funds. Thank you to all cake makers and cake eaters.
Tuesday evening river sessions start again this week (April 1st) and all are welcome to come and find out a bit more about canoe and kayak racing.
PROVISIONAL results can be found here. These do not show promotions yet, or club Hasler points
Graham
