On a glorious sunny day, Norwich Canoe Club was victorious once again. At our home race, we had our biggest entry of the season with over 70 paddlers racing across all divisions. Together, we managed to win full points in the race to qualify for the Hasler Final.
Our youngest racers did well in the Geoff Saunders, where Warrick won Class B, and Magnus came second in Class C just behind Cecilia. Well done!
Next, we had two people who had never raced before in Division 9. Clarice had a strong start and took control of the race in the final kilometers to win (and gain a promotion! Really well done), whereas Matt finished eighth, which is not bad considering he still has to finish his Learn-To-Kayak course!
In Division 8, we had a clean sweep with Hugo, Josh, and Tom all on the podium. In Division 7, we had another exciting finish. In a photo finish, Oliver beat Ollie for the top spot on the podium (and a medal the same color as both of his siblings!).
In the doubles category, Oli and Josh decided to change craft and paddled a C2 to take the win in Division 9. Division 7 was packed with five Norwich K2s; Rob and Kirk won the race, with Lotte and Eva taking a solid third place as juniors in a field of veterans. Division 6 saw another five Norwich K2s, and a clean sweep with Clifford and Alex in third, and Stef and Emma just beaten into second place by Steve and Martin after fighting it out the whole race. Would this rivalry be the end of the normal K2 pairing of Steve and Emma?
Gary and Adam came second in Division 5, whereas in Division 4 we had two Norwich crews on the podium. Ali raced up in Division 4 with Estelle, who recently got promoted, to take third place, but the win went to Tim and Tristian, who also raced up.
Back in K1, Division 6 was won by Peter, and we saw another clean sweep in Division 5. James beat Fee in a sprint finish, with Andrew just 10 seconds behind. Fee definitely enjoyed the portages as she made up loads of time on the first one to get back into the top group. Division 4 was also won by a Norwich paddler, as Mike pulled away from the field on the last lap.
The 20k race also saw quite some Norwich action. Division 3 K1 saw the biggest field of the day, with Connor coming third in a sprint finish. Divisions 1 and 2 started together, with Tim and James pulling away from Harry early on. Tim and James raced hard the whole way, pushing each other, with James just winning the sprint finish. Harry won the Division 2 race, finishing four minutes ahead of second place. In the K2s, the Division 3 K2 of Matt and Grace started with Division 2 and stayed with them for most of the race to take first place. Albert and Rory were in Division 2 and came second, just missing out on first place in the sprint finish.
Unfortunately, I cannot mention all our amazing paddlers due to the sheer numbers, as this report would be even longer. Well done to everyone who raced, and I wish I could mention you all. Every one of you made Norwich Canoe Club proud!
Thank you also to everyone who volunteered as marshals, in Betty’s bar, or supported me running the event: without you, this race would not have been as amazing as it was.
Onto our next race at Bishop’s Stortford on Sunday, the 2nd of June, where we have the chance to take control of our region!
Thank you for reading, Matthew Lodge
Results can be found here: https://entries.canoemarathon.org.uk/results/races/2024/norwich-hasler
Learn more about racing here.
