There was a cold thick fog hanging over the Trent on Sunday, but this didn’t deter the racers as they started to stream into our carpark at Stone. By 9am the river was packed with paddlers practicing the course and working out their plan of attack. The clubhouse was full of parents warming up and enjoying a drink and breakfast bap. By 11am we had 94 entrants and racing got under way.
The mini Slaloms are a handicap race system. So you compete in your class, but secondly you are racing against everyone else. With a good chance that anyone could be overall winner. So Prem paddlers get no handicap and Div4 K1W get 50sec deducted off their time and several variations in-between for all the other classes.
As ever it was a good turn out of S&SCC paddlers but we were pleased to be joined by Stourbridge, Greenstar, Wydean, HPP, Proteus, Matlock, Kingston, Manvers, Manchester, Breakout and Ali from Ireland. Thank you all for making the effort to join us, we hope you enjoyed your day and we look forward to seeing you at the next race.
Ever hopeful that the fog would lift and the temperature would start to go up everyone got into the flow of racing again. Reminding themselves of what they need to do at a race meet and for many Div4 paddlers a chance to race for the first time. The racing was good with some really close battles. The juniors all relished the chance to race and the higher ranked paddlers where keen to see if the winter training was paying off.
Lunch was a good chance to get inside and grab some warm food from Kay and her team. We were joined by two Sports Therapist offering treatments to help with their training. This was gratefully received by several people and the girls were very happy to get the opportunity to further their qualifications. Fingers crossed they might return for the final race on 16th Feb.
As racing came to a close everyone gathered in the club house for prize giving. Tradition at S&SCC is a custom design mug and this years “Minis” mug is a cracker! Designed by Carl Sunderland, it’s a celebration of Adam Burgess representing Team GB in Tokyo. It’s a stunning design and everyone was keen to get their hands on one. So it was just down to Pete Appleton, who was joined by Olympian Lizzie Neave to hand them out. Full results can be seen on our results page. In the overall results though it was Kiera Pearce K1W D2 in 3rd place, James Lyndon C1M Div2 in 2nd and in 1st place Finley Croome C1M Div3.
Thank you to everyone who helped organise the race, all the volunteers who stepped into the many jobs, the catering team and for everyone who attends and makes these races such a success. We look forward to seeing you all at race two on 2nd Feb and race three on 16th Feb.
Words -Adrian Croome
Pictures – Steve Pearce
