Sunday saw the 2014 marathon season finally get under way after race cancellations the previous two weekends due to the extreme water conditions that have persisted this year. The first race of the year was run over the 13 mile Waterside A course from Bedwyn to Newbury with a slightly modified finish line just ahead of Newbury Lock to avoid the worst conditions through Newbury town centre. This was instead of the scheduled Waterside B course downstream of Newbury which was still too fast flowing for racing.
Richmond had a good sized team entered, with 8 K2s, 1 C2 and 4 K1s racing. All crews finished well in the top half of their respective classes, with victories for Richmond in both senior mens and ladies K1. Tom won the mens race in a time of 1.40, 2 minutes ahead of second place and only beaten on time by the winning senior K2. Also racing in the senior mens class was Brett who finished his first race since his return from South Africa in 1.52. He also helped along Lizzie to first place in senior ladies, also in 1.52 and 18 minutes clear of second place. There was also a win for Ben and Adrian in the junior C2 class in a good time of 2.06, placing them fifth in the senior category as well.
Lily and Helen were paddling together for the first time in senior ladies K2 class and took 2nd place with an excellent time of 2:00, less than a minute behind the winners. This was a very successful first outing for pair, especially considering it was their first Waterside race. They were followed less than five minutes later by Sue and Beth who got their DW campaign off to a flying start with a time of 2.04. The rest of the juniors all raced well in the junior mens K2 class with Ben and Guy taking fourth place in 1.58, followed by Ollie and Sophie fifth in 2.05 and Archie and Ewan eighth in 2.08.
Another last minute pairing was Coralie and Richard who reunited their Liffey partnership and had an incident free run down in 1.51 to take 2nd place in the mixed class. Completing the Richmond line up were our final first time pairing of Will and Peter who finished 9th in the senior mens class in 2.04, and Isaac who raced in junior K1.
Thameside 2 has now been cancelled, but Mick is organising a replacement club race on Sunday, see the facebook group for details.
