Staffs and Stone at the Junior/U23 Euros

A major international canoe slalom event in Britain since the 1995 World Champs has been long overdue. The bid by the Slalom Committee, led by Anne Hounslow, to host the 2006 European Junior and under-23 Championship was successful and more than a year of careful planning and preparation finally saw an army of helpers and supporters gather at Holme Pierrepont in late August.

Stafford and Stone volunteered support and many club members became fully involved. So too did many other clubs and all contributed to a most successful championship. Having also attended the Senior World Championship at Prague I know which event in my mind was the more enjoyable.

Our club’s role was mainly threefold:

To erect and maintain the course throughout the competition. Dave Royle headed up this team. The Nottingham poles were hastily painted when it was realised there may not be enough green poles if a long course was set.

Fortunately for Dave the course draw pulled out the French and Belgian coaches so Dave’s fluent French enabled all decisions to be easily communicated. We did think it would have been more of a challenge if some East European coaches had been drawn! Course construction was slick in the limited time available and only 18 gates were set – oh well, the new green poles will come in useful at some stage. The job wasn’t entirely finished, Dave had to do a daily battle to try to get the poles raised a bit higher but the chief judge was insistent on minimum heights, a knee-jerk reaction to events in Prague – as we tried to point out, Prague was about bad judging not pole heights. The course also had to be changed again following qualification, the usual 6 changes for the finals. In spite of some gusty wind at times no poles came adrift throughout the event – good job done by the team.
The club also took on the role of coordinating start and finish. Phil Gooding headed up this task which seemed to grow well beyond what was originally anticipated. At any one time on race days, up to 8 people were required to complete the jobs so a detailed rota was essential. Fortunately there was excellent club support from many of our members and parents – thank goodness not all departed for Tully for yet another Div 1.

What might have seemed quite tedious jobs became very desirable. The juniors were quick to don buoyancy aids and helmets to jump into the raft and hold the boats ready for the “3-2-1-GO”. Pre-Start by the top bridge was well away from the action – well you couldn’t see much paddling from there. But action there was a plenty … Dawn, Sally, Alison, Jane and Sam had never in recent years received so much attention from mostly young athletic male competitors from all over Europe. What about the language barrier? It just added to the challenge. They tried to explain that they wanted to see the buoyancy aid tag but what was really on their minds was seeing the men’s six-packs!!
Several of our younger juniors took on the role of plaque carriers for each country at the opening ceremony and the girls carried the flowers and medals at the ceremonies – very smart they all were too.

The success of the event could not have been achieved without all of the volunteers and I’m sure the committee wish to thank everyone from Stafford and Stone Canoe Club that made the effort to be there.

The main purpose of the event of course was to enable the paddlers from all over Europe to challenge for the titles at either Junior or under-23 level. Great Britain teams included Stafford and Stone’s Mark Proctor, Greg Pitt and Sarah Chynoweth in the Junior Team and Lizzie Neave in the under-23 Team. Qualification went well on a relatively easy Holme Pierrepont course – all of the GB Team went through to the semi-finals. Mark Proctor set the standard in Junior C1 to win, a result not all paddlers desire after qualification with the added pressure it can bring.

Following Thursday and Friday qualifications, Saturday was the Teams day. Exciting racing and as always many thrills and spills. 1st runs were mixed for GB with Junior K1M, Junior C1 and u23 C1 holding Bronze, u23 K1W in Silver position but the other teams not quite getting it together. The high hopes for 2nd runs slowly disappeared as both C1 Teams gathered a 50 and the K1M couldn’t match their 1st run. Although their 2nd run was far from brilliant the u23 K1W Team held on with a gritty performance to secure the Silver medal – well done to Louise Donington, Claire Harrower and Lizzie and something for the large home crowd to cheer.

Sunday - Finals day. A much tougher course and all to go for. There would be no qualification cruising today. For many of the GB team it was a semi final of “What If’s?”. Penalties, small time losses, big time losses, rolls … performing when it counts is the name of the game. The morning started well, Greg Pitt became World Class Start’s 1st Junior C1 finalist ever and was quickly followed by Mark Proctor with a superb run to hold 2nd place behind Junior World Champion Dawid Bartos from Poland. The u23 C1’s followed; Colin Radmore and Dan Goddard brought more GB joy with both progressing through although Dan’s penalties ultimately cost him a medal opportunity. Florence and Marshall in u23 C2 comfortably progressed as GB’s only representatives in this category. The kayaks fared less well – “fast and clean” is the name of the game but most failed to deliver in one or both respects. Welsh u16 Toby Jones was desperately unlucky not to make the final taking 11th spot. He missed the cut by less than a second but rued the small touch at gate 14. In true Lizzie style, only 11th after qualification, a battling run with no touches had the crowd cheering as she took the lead but with 10 boats still to go, would it be enough? As boat after boat failed to meet the target Lizzie was going to make the final … make the top 5 … finally overtaken by just two boats to sit in 3rd place. One of these being Jana Dukatova, newly crowned Senior World Champion in Prague, a superb paddler and role model who many believe could be at the top of our sport for many years to come.

Finals – 8 of them in a very busy Sunday finale. Junior C1’s off first, what could Greg and Mark do? Greg raced to a very quick time but set about the poles in the process and had to settle for a very creditable 7th. Grzegorz Hedwig from Poland laid down a fantastic run to take the lead. The GB crowd roared Mark towards victory but it wasn’t to be. Bronze behind the two top Poles was nevertheless a fantastic achievement – well done Mark, it’s been a very long time since Great Britain won an Individual Junior Championship medal.

The u23 C1’s were up next. Dan again hit too many gates and finished 9th, Colin produced probably one of his best ever performances and was really pleased with his final 6th place after a storming clear run. The U23 C2 pairing of Florence and Marshall are still in their first season together. Experience in the senior team has helped them move forward and they stood a good chance of challenging for a medal. On the day they just missed out to finish 5th but hopefully this new crew will stay together to come back next year stronger and faster.

Lizzie’s big (yes very big!) German rival Dorothee Utz had only placed 9th after the semi’s but came out for the final and put down an incredible run which eventually raised her into the Bronze position. Lizzie had it all to do but her run got off to an awful start as she missed the back of the stopper and lost valuable time in the lead in to gate 2. Clawing back time all the way to the finish, she kept it clean but it was not enough and she dropped to 5th in the final reckoning. Completely “p***** o**” as she later put it, she disappeared to the bottom of the daleks for some quiet space.

Going into the race, for Lizzie the prospect of a Silver in the Teams and 5th in her first u23 Champs (she is still only 19) would have seemed quite an achievement but after the semi’s, anything less than 3rd would inevitably lead to disappointment.

Don’t you just love competitive sport?