New Clifton "World Records"

There are several things that need reporting here in the way of events and results, but one that is worth noting before it goes un-noticed is a new "World Record" for the Clifton Race. It's all the more important because it is the most long standing.

The the oldest Winter World record has been broken - twice by Matt Lawrence in Sprint C1 he did 39.04 this week and 40.55 last week. He also set a new All Comers C1 world record at the same time.

Previous best times for the overall record were James Lee 39.12 and for the Winter, Willy Reichenstein 42.05 way back in 1979. Both previous best times were done in daylight as well.

For those not familiar with C1 paddling, it indicates just how good Matt is. He is the best C1 paddler we currently have in this country and we are fortunate that he is paddling with us at the moment. As he is recovering from illness and probably not yet back to full fitness, just imagine how good he will be in the future.

Fladbury

Fladbury was the 2nd marathon of the new season - the weather was good, there was a reasonable turnout of Lightnings, juniors & veterans. Despite the absence of almost all the club senior paddlers, we still managed to be second club. The full results are on the Marathon Website at http://www.marathon-canoeing.org.uk/results/Fladbury2008.htm

The actual day is best reported in pictures. Here's one to whet your appetite - the rest are at http://picasaweb.google.com/nottmkc/Fladbury

World Marathon Championships & Tour de Gudena

Congratulations to Harriet Farish for her 10th place - sorry no further details yet as no results seem to be on the Marathon website.

Congratulations also to Rich Golder on his 4th place at Gudena in Denmark. Go to the Marathon website (see sidebar) for report and more details. Richard has moved closer to Burton on Trent and so will be racing for them in the future, but as a valued member and past NKC Chairman, we still offer him our wishes for his continued success next season.

The Interclubs Regatta

The weather was poor, I'm afraid to say the turn out by most of our paddlers was poor considering that the course is right on our doorstep and from the point of view of the Lightning paddlers, the organisation was disasterously poor. However the performances of those who attended made up for both these factors to some extent.

It was of course mainly veterans and juniors racing and with some outstanding efforts from amongst them we managed to squeeze into 14th place. It seems that the scorekeeping was also poor and a quick check showed that we should have been placed 12th. The matter has been taken up, but so far no response from the organisers.

Our main cause to celebrate is the success of the Lightning paddlers. On the Saturday, our most successful paddlers in both Under 10 & Under 12 boys were denied a final despite much slower paddlers being included. However, they proved their point on the Sunday by producing medal winning performances.

The Lightning efforts, together with their consistent results and considerable participation during the season gave them the Runner Up place in the Lightning Cup. We offer them our congratulations.

Full Results can be downloaded from the Wey Kayak Club website by following links for Sprint then Results. http://www.weykayak.co.uk/

Sorry the weather made photography almost impossible, so no pictures.

Just Another Tuesday

So after all that we return to just another Tuesday at 6:00 p.m. and just another Clifton 5 mile time trial. The only really notable performance came from Tadek who returned from holiday and produced a PB.

More photos on http://picasaweb.google.com/nottmkc/Clifton

Gold

Well unless you've been asleep, out of the country and away from all sources of news, you will have noticed that one of our members - Tim Brabants opted out of doing the Nationals at Worcester with the rest of us and went off with another NKC member to paddle in China. Tim managed something that no other British paddler has ever done - win an Olympic Gold medal at 1000 metres! He followed that with a bronze in the 500 metres, just before some of us went out and strolled round 4 miles at Worcester.
Our congratulations go to him on something that is unique in British Sprint canoeing & places our sport up there with others like cycling, rowing, sailing & swimming.
Let's not forget to congratulate Lucy Wainwright too. "Only" coming 7th in an Olympic final is one of those acheivements that most of the rest of the sprint paddlers in the World would love to have managed. It is put in context when you look at all the members of Team GB who didn't make finals, who finished lower down the rankings than 7th, or the rest of us who are never likely to get selected to represent our country at the very highest level. For those who may have missed previous news, Lucy is already European 200 metre Champion, so comgratulation Lucy on your results.
For those intersted in more details go to http://worldclass-canoeing.org.uk/wcp/wcp-standardtemplate1.aspx

National Marathon Championships 2008

A fairly large club team attended the Nationals at Worcester over the August Bank Holiday. Fortunately several people had cameras with them and the paddling is best viewed in the web albums on Picasa.
First the ones from Shobhanaa http://picasaweb.google.com/nottmkc/NationalMarathonChamps
Beth, Mick & Kath took a few too
http://picasaweb.google.com/nottmkc/Nationals2

Here are a few of the ones Richard took.

http://picasaweb.google.com/nottmkc/Nationals3
Some good results were produced, most notable from Hayleigh, Harriet & Tina. Dave Belbin, Norman & Mick also featured in the National Champs Masters age group medals. There were also medalists in the Divisional races. Shob, Leanna & Craig also featured with divisional prizes in the National Championships youth age group races. Full results here http://www.worcestercanoeclub.org.uk/nationals_entriessofar.html
Congratulations to all those attending as the club gained 7th place overall.

Sunday paddle

Craig, Alice, Ricky & Leanna turned up complete with picnic, to do a slightly extended paddle on Sunday. Our journey took us up the canal to Beeston, up river nearly to the edge of the caravan site at Thrumpton just below the portage for Trent Lock, at a steady pace. Hunger seemed to be gnawing despite it still being the morning, so we turned downstream and stopped on the small beach just above Barton Island for lunch.

The younger paddlers amused themselves in a variety of energetic ways including investigations of the how to swim a tippy boat from the middle of the river to the bank,

cross country running across grassy fields

...and an in depth study of alluvial deposits - their deposition & distribution ...

I rested.

The paddle back was as incident free as the first stage and at a similar pace.

Altogether an enjoyable day out that also happened to include some serious training efforts totalling over 15 miles!

July K4 10km

It was a mostly calm, warm and sunny evening for the July K4 10km. There were 7 crews with paddlers from Nottingham, Lincoln, Chelmsford, Leicester & Chester paddling. There were varying standards of steering the turns, wash hanging and timing in the entirely mixed crews. Only one boat had a time handicap, with a crew ranking total of 18 (I think) against crew rankings totalling 22, 23 & 24. In theory, they should have caught the "pack" and very nearly did catch the 6th placed crew, however their turns probably added about 200 metres to their course each time and with 7 turns during the 4 laps, obviously paddled about 1500 metres more than the rest.



The two leading crews reaching the finish line.







The evening was also an opportunity for the under 12s (some under 6!) to develop their skills in the Rocket mini K4s further down the course.

Go to the Gallery for more photos http://nkcgallery2.blogspot.com/
Results here when available
Photos - Mick

Excitement - the alternative to Soar Marathon

Just a pointer to some great photos from last weekend's trip away for the families that went with Julie, Rex and Gilly! While the rest of us swam or paddled at Soar. Look at the pictures and then say which you would rather do? Click here http://nkcgallery2.blogspot.com/

World Cups II

Meanwhile at Crestuma in Portugal, Harriet Farish (in K2 with Nicola Taylor - Elmbridge ) came 4th out of 7 starters, 4 min 42 sec down on the winners. A good British Result.

She races again next weekend as part of the GB team to the IV Castilla y Leon K4 International Grand Prix, at Valladolid and Sanabria, Spain.

We wish her success again.

Soar Marathon 2008

The weather improved enough to make it the most like summer that we have had for a couple of weeks. Neil Blackman, the Soar Valley race organiser, proved that it doesn't take a cast of thousands to produce a good race, with only 3 of them running the whole thing. Altogether it was a good day out for those who raced.

Apart from the Nationals at the end of August, it was the last opportunity in the Midlands for individuals to qualify to race at the 2008 Hasler Finals. However, despite it being the closest race apart from our own and the last chance to score Hasler points for the club, the fewest number of NKC members to attend the Soar Race in the past few years, made it a little disappointing for us.

Other clubs, like Burton, Lincoln & Gailey had clearly made an effort to turn out as many paddlers as possible and with 20 odd Lightning paddlers, there were around 90 competitors in total. Like most Midlands races this season though, K2 competitors above Div 7 were almost non-existant, and Div 9 was much lower than would be hoped.

Those NKC members who did attend had mixed fortunes. The hot sunshine raised the temperature quite high, making the water seem inviting and we topped the swimming table with ease. However, good results were produced by Ian in Div 4, Norman in Div 5, Shobhanaa in Div 7, Ozzie in the Under 10 Lightnings and Heather & Alison in Div 8 K2. Kath & Donna were also in the Div 8 K2 medals.

Let's hope a few more NKC members make it to Ironbridge for the first qualifying race of the 2009 Hasler season on 10th August.

More NKC Successes - Members in the News

The news has been full of NKC Members recently.

OLYMPIC KAYAK SPRINT SELECTIONS

Perhaps Tim Brabants & Lucy Wainwright are the most notable, having been on local TV, National TV & the papers. We wish them success.

Also in the news:

INTERNATIONAL MARATHON RESULTS

Paul Enoch & Richard Golder - Senior Mens K4 Trophy Prince of Asturias at Pontevedra in Spain - 20/21 June with Jamie Mayers of Runcorn & Richard Forbes of Solihull.
5th international crew.

Harriet Farish - World Cup 1, Brandenberg, Germany 14-15 June. K2 with Nicky Taylor of Elmbridge Canoe Club. 8th senior women K2.

LOCAL NEWS

At yesterday evening's presentation for the Rushcliffe district sports awards at the Arena, Harriet Farish won the Senior Sportsperson Of The Year out of the many candidates (5 were shortlisted) in a high quality field. Tim Brabants was the speaker at the event and a film was shown of his last years 1000m world championship K1 race to an excited audience. In Harriet's absence - she has gone to race in Crestuma this weekend for another World Cups Event - Norman Mason, the NKC Captain, collected her trophies from Tim).
Also shortlisted were Michael Sims as Junior Sportsperson Of The Year (for last year) and David Phillips as Volunteer Sports Coach. Both of these were in the last 5 in very tough competition.

NATIONAL SPRINT CHAMPIONSHIPS

At the National Sprint Championships last weekend, Tim Brabants became the Mens A K1 500 metres Champion. Laurence Garton won the Mens D Class Championships in both 1000 metres and 200 metres.
Good performances were also produced by our Juniors in the Under 14 Age group. Both Boys and Girls events had over 40 competitors from clubs all over the country and the Girls races also had representatives from Holland and South Africa. Ricky Millar produced good times, while Alice Cobb & Leanna Bold both reached finals. Leanna's result was notable as it was her first season paddling & she came 6th in Final 1 with a paddler from Frisia, Amsterdam & another from Natal Canoe Club, South Africa just ahead of her in the 500 metres.
Only two of our Under 12s paddled at this event, taking part in Lightning, Hody K2 & Mini K4 events. Congratulations to Max & Megan on their first Nationals.

Activities - Shropshire

There are still things going on at the club, like busy Friday nights with a good turn out each week from the juniors, several casual paddlers and a few seniors doing Round the Bridges time trials. Club members did well at Burton & Hereford Marathons too, as can be seen from the results on the club website. Lightning activity at Regattas has been the best ever, with good results in the Lightning, Hody K2 & Mini K4 events. Again details can be found via the club website & downloaded.

Perhaps because everyone is so busy paddling, we do have a shortage of people writing blog entries about it or taking photos, so to get it going again here are a few pictures from Burton, Hereford & Shropshire & a brief report.

Burton saw a good turn out by parents, supporters, veterans, juniors and Lightnings with excellent results. Hopefully there will be a few more pictures on the Gallery Blog before the end of the summer.

Two car loads made it to Hereford for a very windy day's racing.

Finally this weekend, the journey to Shropshire proved to be far easier than that to Hereford and although narrow, the racing there proved to be worth the Journey.

It was a bit tight for the Div 7 K2 start, but our two crews managed to stay out of trouble and get to the front group with little difficulty. The two Lightning paddlers each with their Div 7 junior partner, performed particularly well. Despite some interesting turning and an unfortunate collision, they finally finished in 2nd and 3rd places - an excellent result. Mick's Div 5 race was less crowded, but the younger ones shot off, leaving him to warm up on the first mile. After Matt (from Burton) dropped Mark (from Gailey) 2nd 3rd & 4th places came together in a group. By the finish, now fully warmed up and with fortune smiling on him at the 6th portage, Mick also managed to gain 2nd.

Hopefully there will be more photos on the Gallery of other activities soon.

Champions

While Nottingham Marathon was going on, some NKC members were doing great things elsewhere:

At the European Sprint Championships in Milan ...

Tim Brabants - added yet another title to his impressive array - European Men's K1 1000 metre Champion (Report http://www.bcu.org.uk/bcu/bcu-newsitem.aspx?NewsItemId=864)
Lucy Wainwright - became European Women's K1 200 metre Champion (Report http://www.bcu.org.uk/bcu/bcu-newsitem.aspx?NewsItemId=865)
Hayleigh Mason -was in the Women's K4 500 metre crew that came 9th (Jess Walker/ Anna Hemmings/ Rachel Cawthorn /Hayleigh Mason) and in the crew that came 4th in the Women's K2 200 metres with Rachel Cawthorne of Wey Kayak Club.
(Milan Report http://worldclass-canoeing.org.uk/wcp/wcp-newsitem.aspx?NewsItemId=586&Level1MenuItemId=2)

At Southampton Marathon Assessment Race ...

Harriet Farish - was qualifying for a place in the team to go to World Cup 1, Brandenberg, Germany 14-15 June. Where she will partner Nicky Taylor of Elmbridge Canoe Club in the Senior Women's K2.

Paul Enoch & Richard Golder - have also been selected to take part in the Senior Mens K4 Trophy Prince of Asturias at Pontevedra in Spain - 20/21 June with Jamie Mayers of Runcorn & Richard Forbes of Solihull.

Nottingham Marathon (3)

Portages & finishes

Nottingham Marathon (2)

The Div 9 & Lightning starts

Nottingham Marathon (1)

The weather was very pleasant for the annual NKC Marathon Race. Tim took so many pictures that it will tale several post to include some of the best. There will be a CD-Rom at the club for all those who want to copy some. Meanwhile here are the first of the starts - more to follow. The provisional results are on the website at: http://uk.geocities.com/nottinghamkayakclub/resultstore/Hasler08.htm


Could you ever doubt that Geordie was enjoying the race?

Busy Weekend 15th - 18th May

A reminder to all members that the club are running their Hasler Marathon Race on 18th May. If you're not racing, there are jobs you can help with or come and cheer our paddlers on.

Meanwhile our thoughts are with NKC's top sprint paddlers, as 3 of them are representing Britain at the the European Championships in Milan. Tim Brabants, the current 1000 metre World Champion, is doing Mens K1 500 & 1000 metres. Lucy Wainwright is doing Womens K1 200 & 500 metres and Hayleigh Mason Womens K2 200 metres & K4 500 metres. In addition to this, Rosy Gray, one of our club Life Members, is acting as an official at the championships. Full team details here http://www.marathon-canoeing.org.uk/newsletter.asp

Congratulations to Harriet Farish for her 4th place, only 6 seconds down on the winner at last weekend's GB marathon assessment race in Chester. Richard Golder was 8th in the Men's K1. Full results here http://chestercanoeclub.org.uk/chester_1_ass_08.htm

Leamington Marathon 2008

Only Craig & I made it to Leamington this year, and as it's hard to paddle and photograph, it's just a brief report (hooray) with no illustrations (boo). The lower divisions did the same course that they have done for the past few years, but higher divisions started downstream from the club at the Avon/Leam confluence.

The only downside to the race arrangements this year, were that the starts made it impossible for any juniors, or Lightnings to be accompanied, helped, supervised, or chaperoned, if everyone else was paddling the course with their start a considerable distance from the club. This severly limited us this year as all the parents of the beginner juniors and Lightnings who wanted to paddle, also paddle themselves. The Google Earth photos of the course were good and the simple course diagram easy to follow - the best I've seen.

I can't speak for the Div 2 & 3 paddlers who had 4 laps of the same bit of river to do, owing to the spectacular, but dangerous events staged at Warwick Castle during summer weekends. (Being moving targets for mediaeval artillery could be considered dangerous!) For Divs 4 -6, the actual racing was if anything better than the course we have come to expect. Club members had cleared the long portage "get outs" well and although the weir could be deemed by some, too dangerous to be done downstream, it was dry enough to be OK upstream. The additional bit upstream of the club, made up for missing the downstream portage. The biggest hazards actually encountered were, as always, the wandering "rowing" pleasure boats. These beetle around looking as though they are intending to go right, but go left & vice versa - they look equally confused about what we are doing. I do remember the punts at Oxford were worse, but it's marginal!

The damage we sustained to our understern rudder took place at the last turn where an underwater log leapt out and got us as we turned.

Craig's day was made when he heard a "piper" off in the woods and went to track him down after the race!

Leamington were welcoming and generous with their mugs as prizes (now blue on yellow to go with our yellow on blue ones.) The weather was spectacularly hot and even though Craig and I could have had a better race, the easy journey to Leamington was well worth the effort.
Perhaps a few more Notties could manage it next year.

Full results here http://www.marathon-canoeing.org.uk/results/Leamington2008.htm

May Regatta

The May Regatta was a great weekend, with it being my second regatta I was a little more confident of what I had to do. The Javelin proved itself by winning the K1 500m and coming second in K1 1000m. It was good fun doing the 500m for the first time, and its over before you know it. Also I did K2 500m and 1000m with Ricky and I really enjoyed this, we were in a really snazzy K2 and we got great results with coming first in both events. It was great to have such a good partner and I hope to paddle with Ricky at the next regatta. There was no complaining about the weather it was perfect and it was great to watch other Nottingham paddlers compete and get into the finals. A big thanks to Mick for all the organising and being a great coach, and to all the people who helped and supported at the regatta. I feel it was a great weekend and we got great results from all the paddlers and bring on the next one.

Craig

May Regatta 2008

The May Regatta this year was enjoyable for a number of reasons.
First, the calm, warm weather, made the racing so much more enjoyable, even with a little drizzle on the Sunday.
Second, watching Tim Brabents demonstrate so emphatically why he is the World Champion provided inspiration for us all. Our three top seniors, Tim, Lucy and Hayleigh all produced some great results, helping to progress their standings for international selection & success this year.
Apart from them and a new member, Paddy, in Mens D, and Michael in Mens B, that was about it for Nottingham Seniors.
We also had representation in the Masters classes from Tim, Pete, Mick, Rex & Ian with a string of good results for Ian & Rex in Masters A in particular, and a win for Mick in the Masters B 1000 metres.
However good any of these factors might have been though, it was the participation and successes in the Junior & Lightning classes that were the highlight of the event.

Leanna, doing her first regatta partnered with Sarah managed 3rd in the Girls D 500 metres 1st Final. Shobhanna reached the Girls D 500 metre 1st final in K1 and Alice reached the 3rd final of the 1000 metres. Ricky & Craig excelled themselves in their 2nd regatta, particularly with their win in the Boys D K2 1000 metres. Craig also produced excellent results in his K1 races.

It is hard to pick out the best Lightning performance from the club, but for me perhaps, the fact that we produced 2 full crews for the 1000 metres Under 10/Under 12 mini K4 was the most pleasurable. Well done to, Tadek, Zyggy, Ozzie, Amelia, Megan, Max, Harvey & Olivia

The support from parents also needs mention and thanks. It was great to see solidarity from parents of the older juniors at the regatta, cheering on the paddlers. The turnout by the parents of Lightning paddlers took me back to the great days of the 1970s, when NKC parents turned out in force to cheer and help at the regattas.
Paticular thanks needs to go to Julie, who organised the Nottingham Lightning paddlers, negociating with officials & sorting crews. She also managed to run up and down with the races and take a few photos.







The two Nottingham mini K4 crews on their way to 1000 metre start. Wouldn't it be great to have a couple of the boats at the club for them to train in too!




Mini K4 1000 metre start.
Photos by Julie

Full results as PDF file: http://www.bcu.org.uk/bcu/CoachingItemPDFs/upload_2147.pdf

Worcester!

There weren’t that many paddlers from the club at Worcester on Sunday, but many people did well. Alice, Tadek and I paddled in div 9 and our race was the first of the sets of divs. Unfortunately Alice started next to a C1 which cut across a lot of boats and cut her completely off and Tadek also got held up but they recovered. But then Alice’s footrest broke and so Mick had to do a quick fix however Alice managed to over take four people!

The course had been changed to a new one which was easier as it was just up and down. Alison, Heather and Geordie, Kath and Donna also passed by on the race and they looked to be paddling well!

Afterwards we watched Rex win the div 4 K1, Mick do a great portage and Craig’s finish too! Not to forget Max’s fly by the finish line and win the under 10 lightenings!

As well as having a great race, the weather was lovely as it was forecast to rain all day although there was a bit of showers during div 4,5&6’s race.

My results were very pleasing as I won div 9 and was also promoted to div 7! Overall it was a great day and I’m really glad Mick talked me into racing, thanks!

Worcester Photo Caption Competition!!!

I've promised that I'll add the first of these photos so that you can all click & zoom in on my face.

All suggestions for the caption to Rex please. Thanks for the photos Julie.

Worcester Marathon 2008 - Divs 4, 5 & 6

We had no paddlers in the upper divisions, but Rex, Mick & Craig provided good results in their respective classes. Most Notable was Rex's outstanding win in Div 4.




Craig doing his first 8 mile race also aquitted himself well. His dead leg and other incidents on the only portage, were probably memorable from his point of view.



Not to be outdone by his dad, Max deserves a mention for his win in the Under 10 Lightning race.





The weather was generally good with a mixture of warm sunshine and quite heavy showers.

Worcester Marathon 2008 - Divs 7, 8 & 9

It was an early start for some as the start times of the first races was very early for most marathons in the region. NKC was well represented in Div 7 K2 with Kath & Donna plus Geordie and Heather racing.


Leanna & Alice doing their first K1 marathon joined Tadek in Div 9, while Alison did Div 7.

Alice has a tale to tell - after the first 500 metres, her footrest & tiller dropped out, but fortunately, Craig was doing his guardian angel bit & spotted her in difficulties & summoned the driver/coach/repairman, to do some rapid, on the spot adjustments to the ailing system and then over 500 metres down on the last boat in the class, she carried on. Even then she managed to catch several of the tail enders before the finish. Tadek did a good steady race, paddling up from Under 12s, while Leanna produced an outstanding result by finishing 1st in a faster time than the Div 8 winner and consequently getting promoted to Div 7 ... on her 1st K1 race. She was the only person from the club who was surprised at this outcome, but also clearly enjoying her first real marathon K1 success.