MacGregor Paddle Interclub Sprint Championships

A team of Richmond paddlers travelled up to Nottingham to compete in the inter-club competition. There were strong performances from both junior and senior paddlers and the contribution of parents who drove up and supported was also a vital part of the team success. Saturday saw near perfect conditions with a light tail breeze helping our team to place fast times. This was a direct contrast to Sunday with a return of the famous Nottingham headwind, requiring more strength and endurance to deal with the longer racing. Over the course of the weekend the team amassed 437 points to come 6^th in the overall competition.

Junior Races

Boys D

A number of first timers came up to sample the world of sprint racing, including many of the boys D contingent. One of the earliest races on course was the Boys D K2 1000m in which Shirav Medepalli and Joe Whittaker worked well together (despite the over a foot difference in height between them) to come 3^rd. Shirav’s form in K2 continued throughout the weekend as he partnered up with James Rushby to take 7^th in the K2 200m and 9^th in the K2 500m. The boys formed a K4 which also included Danny Mavra and took another 7^th place in the C/D 500m. There were also solid K1 performances with James and Joe taking 6^th and 7^th places respectively in the K1 200m and James managing a very impressive 2^nd place in the K1 500m.

A Races

With selections to the international Olympic Hopes regatta up for grabs A number of paddlers decided to import their crew boat partners form other canoe clubs. Luke Phillips paired up with Tom Holland from Southampton to come 4^th in the Boys A/B K2 1000m. Melody Hills paired up with Amber Cox of Elmbridge for her K2 races and they came 5^th in Girls A/B 200m and 7^th in 500m. Andras Kereszturi raced his K4 in the senior men’s A/B 500m race and came 2^nd, beating the U23 GB crew. They will be in action in GB colours at the European Championships later this month, aiming for the podium places.

There was also an all Richmond Boys A/B K4 made up of Devin Kleta, Dylan O Connor, Karim Sebti and James Rushby who took a solid 8^th place. There were also good K1 performances: Luke came 2^nd in his Boys A/B 1000m and 3^rd in his 500m, proving that coming to kayaking late does not slow you down. Melody came 6^th in her Girls A/B 200m against a very strong field including a number of international paddlers. Freya Peters, who will be representing her country at the European Marathon Championships later this month, won her Girls A/B 1000m and came 4^th in the 500m.

Senior Races

Team Canoe

Arguably the club’s secret weapon, the canoe team had a number of notable performances. To start the regatta Arthur Leech won his C1 A-D 1000m, he followed this up with a 2^nd in 500m and a 4^th in 200m. He also got in a C2 with the returning to form Ben Phillips to win the C2 1000m. Ben and Arthur then went their separate ways for the C2 200m as Ben paired up with coach Gabor Szeltner and Arthur with his dad David Leech coming 2^nd and 5^th respectively. Arthur and David came 2^nd in the C2 500m allowing David to retain his pride as he finished in front of the fast improving junior crew of Owen Chisholm and Frank Norton whom he coaches. These two first timers also raced in the A – D Mixed Canoe Open class coming 7^th and 8^th in the 200m and 5^th and 7^th in the 500m in their finals.  The final spectacular flourish of the canoe team was the C4 of Ben, Arthur, David and Gabor who won their race by a significant margin.

Women’s D & Masters

Kirsten Field was hugely successful in Masters B in her K1 taking 3^rd place in both the 200m and the 500m. Elly O Connell raced in Women’s D category, also taking 3^rd place in her 500m and 6^th place in her 200m. Despite being a junior, Izzy King took on the adults in Women’s D K2 with Elly O Connell over every distance; they came 3^rd in their 200m, 4^th in their 500m and 5^th in their 1000m. The Women’s D and Masters then joined forces to create a K4 of Izzy, Elly, Kirsten and Annette Peters which took 2^nd place in the 200m in a very exciting race. Despite all this racing action, Elly spent most of her time in between races looking for more races, and so jumped into a mixed K2 for the Men + Women C/D 500m with Tom Walker. They qualified to the final and took 9^th place.

Men’s D and Masters

Tom Walker went on to take 2^nd in the Masters D K1 500m and Mike Channon took 7^th in the same race. They formed a Masters C/D K4 with Guy Peters and Dimitri Chernyshenko which came 8^th in the 200m and Guy also came 9^th in the Masters C K1 1000m. Dimitri, Tom and Tony Waskiewicz raced in the K1 200m and came 2nd, 3^rd and 4^th respectively. A good performance from our masters team.

A Races

In the senior A races; Lizzie Broughton, the current 5000m world champion, delivered a masterclass in K1 1000m, comfortably winning Women’s A/B and Jane Swarbreck came in not long behind her to take 3^rd. Lizzie also took 4^th in the 500m and 8^th in the 200m. Lizzie and Jane raced together in the K2 and Freya Peters reformed her old junior k2, racing with Maia Wallace-Loizou. They came 3^rd and 4^th respectively in the Women’s A/B 200m and 2^nd and 6^th in the 500m. They then combined to race K4 in a strong field and finished 4^th. Lizzie also raced the Men + Women A/B race in K2 with Tom Sharpe where they came 5^th in a hugely competitive field.