Another international result from Hayleigh

Having worked out how to navigate around a confusing Spanish website, it's now possible to give a link to the most recent results from Hayleigh who came 3rd in yesterday's Senior Women's K1 race. You can download the full results at http://www.fcylp.com/fichacomp.asp?ref=238

International results

NKC Members have enjoyed considerable success in international competitions over the past few weeks. Go to the club website for links to each of them. 6 club members have competed & one been involved in coaching. http://uk.geocities.com/nottinghamkayakclub/recent/page2.html

The most outstanding is of course Tim Babants becoming European Champion in Mens K1 500 metres. He added this to the Silver medal he had already won in the 1000 metres. Lucy Wainwright paddling with Abby Coulson also managed 8th in their final

The club website also has links to the Junior World Wild Water Racing Championships where Michael Sims managed an 11th & 14th place. By far the most entertaining link is to the report from this trip where the exploits of Michael & Agent Orange in the colonies can be enjoyed. http://www.wildwater.org.uk/events/racereports/juniorworlds2007.htm

There are also links to the the World Cups Marathon in Denmark, where Hayleigh Mason, Vicky Surrage & Harriett Farish also turned in good results. Lastly there are links to the international races in Spain, where Hayleigh Mason has again been racing this weekend. It helps to be able to read Spanish & the website changes every time you look at it, but if you poke around a bit, you can find the results downloadable as pdf files.

Worcester Hasler Race

With good weather, Dave driving the mini bus & several good results to NKC, Worcester was an enjoyable day out. Most people were happy with their individual results, but most importantly the team effort meant that we finished 3rd overall in the points.

Photo's by Mick & Sarah - more on the Gallery Blog. (Click on the images for the large version.) Results by following the link on the NKC Results page.

Mick & Tadek getting ready for their 1:30 starts.

Having Dave as driver made the whole day easier for the rest of us.

Division 4 was a good field, with Rex, Graham & Norman all competing. A good result for Rex, finishing 2nd

With the higher divisions racing, Tadek had plenty of help to get him on the water for the Lightning race. 18 competitors across the different catagories made it the best Midlands Region Lightning event so far this year.

A very good result from Tadek, coming first in his class & scoring 10 points in the Lightning competion.

Worcester Assessment race

From the NKC point of view the premiere event was the Women's K2 with Vicky & Hayleigh racing.











They finished 2nd to Anna Hemmings & Louisa Sawers of Elmbridge who were well clear of the rest.

















The battle for 2nd & 3rd places was decided in the last few metres with Becky Schofield & Fay Lamph 3rd & Frankie Negus with Nicky Taylor only a few seconds down on them.
Full results by following the link on the NKC Results page. Photos by Sarah.

April Regatta 2007

Well, I've known regattas held up by a number of weather conditions over the years that HPP has been open - snow, high winds, thunder storms - but fog is unusual. The water conditions were perfect - glassy smooth, but not a race was to be seen for the first hour & a half of Sunday's racing. The hot sun later, more than made up for it & by 10:30 on Sunday, most people had forgotten the reason that racing was delayed so long! Go to http://nkcgallery.blogspot.com/ for a reminder.
Cathy Howell was one of the first Nottingham paddlers out on the corse for the Saturday events.

Over the 2 days there were some interesting results. Jonny Schofield, whoever he is, popped out of White Water & stirred up a storm in the 200 metres with a course record. Ed McKeever/Ed Cox in the K2 managed the same, but that was more expected. Tim Brabants did what was expected of him in the 1000 metres & replicated it in the 500 to the visible annoyance of Schofield. Most other paddlers in the world would have been fairly pleased to have been 2nd to Tim, given his form over the past few years.


Other Nottingham paddlers, such as Lucy Wainwright & Shuna Braithwaite returned good performances with Shuna promoted back to Women's A. Ralph Baker & Richard Winstanley managed a first & second in the K2s. What a pity that Ralph couldn't manage his heat time in the final! Get a full pdf copy of the results from http://www.weykayak.co.uk/Sprint_Frame.html

The junior Girls D results may seem a little disappointing till you look at the promotions, many of which should have happened at the September regatta, but for the weather, or been done by knowledgable team leaders during the winter as they were asked to.

Delete the promoted entries & the finals would have been more like a Girls D race than Girls C. The same was true for Boys C & D.

Rex Littlewood's Masters A K1 500 final was so close that the naked eye could not work it out. Sadly Rex was just 2nd. Although what's to be sad about a good result! I managed a 2nd in the 1000 and appeared to come 3rd in the 500 of Masters B until the Richmond paddler failed to turn up for boat weighing leaving me 2nd on the results. The most enjoyable race for me though, was the Masters K4 5Km National Champs, where good pace & tactics from Rex helped Norman, Baggy & myself cross the line 20 seconds or so ahead of Lincoln. Funny that we all thought that it would be the Reading boat that gave us a run for our money! Just shows how much energy the Olivers with Andy Grimwood & an imported paddler can still summon up!

DW - Last Post

Just to set the record straight, 22 NKC crews have completed the straight through K2 on DW. Most of us have entered as just Nottingham. Mark Blatchley & his partner entered as NKC, so the statistics missed him out!
For those interested in such stuff, go to the DW website & http://www.dwrace.org.uk/
If you you click on Results History at the left it takes you to this amazing database that includes DW. By sorting through various searches you can find nearly every result of all the crews who have ever done DW. By clicking on the year beside an individual crew it is even possible to call up their certificate to find sub-class trophy wins.
Look out for more complete information about NKC at DW on the NKC website. Once I've researched the K1 results, they'll be added to the Results pages.


Meanwhile, here are a few snippets relating to our current active membership:
Norman Mason opened the NKC account in 1971 with his partner Andrew Doughty
Heather Parker was our first Lady paddler with Colin Gray in 1977
Kath Nadal & Dave Phillips in 1981 together with Brian Newbutt & Dave Hewlings in 1994 had the highest "straight through" overall placing of 6th
Dave Hewlings, no longer racing at NKC, did the most successful runs, while George Oliver & Dave Enoch are only just behind
John Wesley is on 2 complete runs
Mick Green has undoubtably had the most adventures on DW, in adition to actually completing it!
Steve Bagshaw & Donna Griffin lifted the tally of Mixed crews to finish to 5
Brian Newbutt & his partner Dave Hewlings are the only NKC crew under 18 hours - 17:25:23
The last to do DW was Tim Nadal in 2003 with his partner Richard Storm
The Nadal family have had 3 members enter K2 (Kath, Mick & Tim)
Whose names are next?

I can also add that 4 NKC paddlers have completed the 4 day Senior K1 race. Adam Brewster, James Treadgold (The Waterside Series organiser) & Richard Golder this year, are 3 of them. There may be others who raced for different clubs or universities, who are now members & I have no idea about Junior crews - a few odd names spring to mind, but I'm not sure.

But if you look in awe at Simon Fennemore's 15:13:21 K1 time this year, just remember that Jimmy Butler's record time of 14:46:42 set in 1993, still stands. So when he doesn't train week in, week out, but still leaves you bobbing in his wash on the Clifton Time Trial next Tuesday, don't feel too bad about it!