All the photos from today can now be viewed and downloaded via these links:
The Starts
The Portages
The Racing
The Presentations
The photo albums are also on our Facebook page FriendsofGSCC
Race Report by Graham (results will follow when verified).
Lovely weather greeted all those who attended our marathon today and we were all set up and ready to go by 9am (see photo). Those who arrived early also had the opportunity to watch competitors in the Brigg Triathlon in the morning.
A total of 31 competitors took to the water -mainly from our own club and Malton & Norton but with a small number of others from around the region. Numbers in most divisions were low apart from Division 8 which had 6 starters. We had no-one in the highest divisions but it was great to watch some quality paddling from our visitors.
Karl and Connor fought over 13km in Division 5, with both of them taking the lead at times but Karl just managed to secure 1st place by 7 seconds.
In Division 6, Louie saw off some spirited opposition to secure first place and Andrew took first place in Division 7.
Division 8 was dominated by visitors. The winner was John Sherwin from across the Pennines with Phil and Dave only managing to get 5th and 6th places. Dave would have done much better but he sacrificed his own performance to support some of the younger (less experienced) paddlers.
Division 9 was a Glanford and Scunthorpe exclusive event. Jessica, one of our newest and youngest marathon paddlers, took first place. This was only her first 6.5km race. She had originally been entered into the shorter (junior) race but, as she was the only competitor, she agreed to tackle the longer distance. She beat the second placed paddler by almost a minute and a half coming in ahead of some paddlers in Divs 7 and 8 – a great performance.
Sue and Helen were the only doubles boat in Division 8 but they outperformed all the other doubles paddlers from Div 7 and 9 over 6.5km.
Mike and Hazel took out our heavy touring double to secure 2nd place in Div 9 doubles with John and Francis securing 3rd place in only their first race together in Doubles Canoe.
A great big thanks to all the volunteers, competitors and visitors who made the day possible. In addition to the racing we also had our famous cake stall which managed to raise over £100 to be shared between our charity (Lincs and Notts Air Ambulance) and the club.