A small squad of Richmond canoe &kayak paddlers took part in the National Canoe Sprint Racing Regatta at Nottingham on 1st & 2nd Sept 2012.
Conditions were fairly good by Nottingham standards with a slight to moderate head wind. The following is a summary of the results with apologies for those I have missed.
In the Boys under 14 Harry Wells put in some promising performances in his K1. In the K2 Harry teamed up with one of the Scottish Development Paddlers and also steered his K4 to a 4th and 5th in the 1000m and 500m respectively against some tough competition. Harry has a number of years left in this age group so watch this space.
In the Boys under 18 Nick Romain was perhaps racing in the toughest category against some top class opposition. Nick reached Final 2 in the K1 1000m and teamed up with Sam Plummer in K2 and came 4th in Final 1 of the 1000m & 500m in some lightening fast races. In 200m Nick came 2nd in K1 Final 2 and 7th in K2 Final 1.
In the Girls under 14 Renee Myburgh came 2nd in the K1 1000m being narrowly beaten by her K2 partner. Renee became National Champion at 500m in both K1 and K2 and also National Champion in K2 1000m with her new K2 partner Lizzy Grey (Lincoln). Renee will look towards retaining her titles in 2013 alongside Elle & Lily.
In the Girls under 16 Alison came 3rd in the K2 1000m & 500m with her partner Lucy Lee-Smith from Norwich and won in the K1 1000m & 500m in Final 2. In the K1 200m Alison finished 6th in Final 1.
In mini-kayak A Elle Tompkins and Lily Wong came 4th and 7th in the K1 500m respectively and together in the K2 500m picked up bronze medals. Both Elle & Lily became National Champions in the K4 500m all of which bodes well for next year.
Richmond Canoe paddlers were very successful with numerous podium finishes across many of the C2 & C4 categories so well done to Marko, Attila, Ben, Adrian and Marcin. In a rare quiet moment Attila reflected that his success is probably down to his KFC diet.
In the Masters over 54 K1 1000m Tony Waszkiewicj won a bronze shadowed by Mike Fegent who finished 7th. In the 200m the tables were turned with Mike, the sprint specialist, winning silver and Tony coming in 6th. Richmond has always had coaches who can walk the walk.
In Women’s C Rosario Ruiz briefly became National Champion with a dominant display of sprinting at 500m. Celebrations were short lived as Rosa was denied victory as her boat was marginally under-weight. Sue Middlehurst added to her previous weekends medal collecting activities at the marathon Nationals by gaining silver in the Ladies Over 44 1000m.
