11-12/10/03

This weekend was for all juniors in Boys/Girls C or above, and was held at Nottingham. There was 95 in all and four juniors from Richmond went-Sean, Jordan, Sam and Lizzie. The aim of the weekend was to get an idea of each paddlers strengths and weaknesses and to form a baseline for winter training. In April the final group of 'Start' juniors will be selected.

We arrived at the club at 6:30 to load the boats, before Trevor drove us up. When we reached the centre, the first test was a 2km canoe, with 30 seconds intervals between each paddler. Also on Saturday was the 100m sprints, squat thrusts, medicine ball rotations and medicine ball pushups. There was also a mental questionnaire and talks by coaches and members of the senior GB squad.

For the night, the girls stayed at the centre and the boys at hotels. Sunday started with another questionnaire and the 4km run around the lake (which Jordan won for the boys and Lizzie for the girls). The rest of the day was filled with gym tests-dips, press ups, sit ups, throwing the medicine ball and more talks from coaches. The day finished at about 4:30.

12/10/03

The marathon went off without a hitch this weekend, thanks to everyone that was involved in making the day a success. It looks like Richmond has a number of good results.

15/10/03

Richmond has added "Paddle Point" to the website, please submit any paddling related events you may know of so that they can be added.

05/10/03

Richmond had a slightly smaller contingent than last year, but the most vocal supporters by far seeing us to a third place. Doug stormed into third in the div2 K1. The Hendrons managed a fantastic win in Div 3/4 K2 with all of us on the bridge being treated to their ruthless portage technique, Ross and Mark came in third. Neil and Karl fought a tactical race to come second in Div 7/8 K2

23/10/03

IMPORTANT NEW RULE CHANGES:

This year the Exe Descent organisers are making helmets compulsory in K1 and K2 - and as I understand it, Airbags as secondary buoyancy, are now compulsory in all boats - so remember

1) HELMETS IN ALL CLASSES INCLUDING K1 AND K2

2) AIRBAGS IN ADDITION TO NORMAL BUOYANCY BLOCKS

You have been warned - don't turn up without them - Sean