??/07/03

Richmond's twin brothers, Henry and Richard Hendron today lowered the Cross Channel benchmark time to 4 hours 18 minutes. Speaking to journalists from their return motor launch, Richard commented how a last minute switch from flat water racing kayaks to specialist sea kayaks had saved the day. "The first hour was very rough, we would not have stood a chance in our normal boats - these sea kayaks enabled us to survive". Henry, fatigued from the days exertion could only comment "I am glad we had the Guinness scrutineers here. I would not want to do that again"

??/07/03

Old people, over 35, in canoes - they should know better.

??/07/03

5-6/07/03

The Rumours Were Right, we did very well at Nottingham

Congratulations to K. Byres and M Ducek on their promotion from Mens D to Mens C and J. Mungovan on his promotion from Boys C to Boys B.

There were pages of results from this event filled with Richmond paddlers doing very well and everyone should be congratulated. While there were too many successes to list here Neville's first for the RAF?? in the Men K1 Veteran B 5km did catch my eye.

??/07/03

Conditions were good for the British Championships. Although not as fast as they could be, there was no strong wind and it wasn't too cold.

The 200 metre racing looked to be spiced up again with Turrell, Moule and Tingay all being allowed to race once more in the Mens A 'Elite' division.

In the Mens A K1 event, racing was tight. Turrell blasted off the start to establish an early lead but paid the 'lactic price' in the final few metres, with Andrew Kelly of Royal, snatching victory by 2/10s of a second, to become the 2003 K1 200 metre British Champion, in a time of 38.84. Richard Darbydowman took bronze, racing from the other final.

In the K2 event, the 2002 British Champions Tingay and Turrell were out to defend their K2 title. Having been working closely over the winter with coach Allan Bennet and after a training stint in Temple-Sur Lot (France) they were confident of producing another winner here. Stiff competition took the form of british team members Darbydowman/Heath.The atmosphere was tense on the line with medals and a title at stake! After a quick exit from the blocks, Tingay/Turrell established a 1 second lead over Darbydowman and Heath by the 50 metre mark and managed to hold this to right to the end, winning the event by over a boat length. Moule and Sowry raced to a credible bronze medal position.

In the K4 event 3 boats lined up for the fastest race of the day and another tight finish was to be had with Moule/Heath/Garlick/Kelly pipping the crew of Tingay/Turrell/Hoile/Seaford on the line. It is good to see the K4 200 metre event re-emerging as a popular event - Hopefully more crews will participate in 2004. As is often the case with 200 metre racing it is only once the results go up on the board that you know whether or not you have won.