So what is the Waterside Series? It may seem a silly question, most paddlers in the UK will know the answer and it might sound something like this… ‘It’s those weird, shallow, muddy, cold, long, portage ridden time trial things in the arse end of nowhere.’ To be fair this is fairly accurate description of these four races. But having raced the first two (A & B) so far this year, I have discovered they can also be described as… incredibly painful, frustrating, dangerous, gritty, slipper-under-foot and positioned just the other side of ‘the arse end of nowhere’.  But even after going through all that, it’s immensely satisfying to cross the line, just to get it over with. With some cuts on your knees and hands you feel ‘a bit harder’ now that’s over, and the frustration is easily forgotten over a hot chocolate. The mud, grit and pain, well that’s all part of it, that must be what keeps them coming back for more each year, because it ain’t the competitors refreshments, and that’s a fact.


The other good reason is the records. Everyone knows the race is a time trial, and therefore the records become the main goal for some racers. I raced in K2 with Ivan Lawler for both A and B, our goal on both was to get the records, and that we did, but boy did we have to work for it! Waterside A is Great Bedwin to Newbury 13,5 miles & 21 portages. Around 92 minutes of hard paddling and harder portaging, made more difficult by all the crews you catch up in the last 30mins! Waterside B is Newbury to Aldermaston and back, 18 miles & 19 portages. Needless to say, you get pretty good at portages after just these two races.


There are still two races left; C & D (there is a pattern emerging) Waterside C is on Sunday 27th March racing from Pewsey to Newbury, 23 miles & 35 portages. Waterside D is on Sunday 10th April racing from Devises to Newbury, 34 miles & 35 portages. If these races are anything like the last two, we are all in for a right gritty muddy treat! To be fair, what else are you going to do on your quite Sunday? Get out and race. It’s the only way to get good at racing (funny that).


Details on Waterside entries, results and races are HERE and the Thameside Series is basically the same but… well… on the Thames so details for that HERE. Picture by Paddle pics

Peace!

Here is a man who knows a thing or two about having confidence in his winter training…

Marathon World Championships 2010 – event review

It’s not often I come away from an international event with no complaints, (I love to have a grumble about things!) usually there are problems with over crowded late running busses, or maybe the venue is not good for spectators and sometimes the venue just plain awful for paddling, and you think ‘what the hell are we doing here?!’ Banyoles had none of these problems this weekend, hosting the World Championships was no issue at all for these organizers.

The course itself is a spring located on a natural tectonic depression, surrounded by trees and only 10 minutes from Banyoles city centre, if you can take your eyes of the 2100 meters of bright turquoise water you will notice the foothills of the Pyrenees providing the perfect backdrop to one of the best bits of water I have ever paddled on.

According to all sources (Melvin Swallow, 3rd of the masters K1 55-59 and 3rd in K2 with Dyson Pendle) the racing for the masters events was a great success, with very strong teams as always from Spain, South Africa, Great Britain and many more. Stuart West won the K1 40-44 class, and It was great to see the old people keeping their minds active, and I’m sure the spring water will have done them some good, but overall everyone seemed very pleased with their racing, I still think our masters should be more involved with the team, they race hard and represent Great Britain with pride, maybe we should have selection races for them…?

I did not attend the opening ceremony, in my experience they are not normally organized with athletes in mind, however I heard that the fireworks were pretty impressive, and to spice things up one of the child slaves* took a rogue firework in the face, I assume she survived but like I said, I wasn’t there.

* You know the ones, normally involved in boat holding at the start, will work for 1 free bright orange event t-shirt.

Friday
For some reason the Under 23 events are proving to be very popular, they are also sticking around, so get used to the 3 days of racing kicking off with the Junior Men’s K1. I did not attend due to my own personal race preparation, but from what I hear the young athletes did not disappoint. Jonny Tye was making his World Championship debut this weekend, having medaled in Tyn at the world cup this year I know he was hungry for racing, joining him on the 30 boat start line was Albert Hicks, also looking to improve on his World Cup results. After a bad start, Jonny was left out of the front 4, and to make things worse the other racers in his group did not want to work to catch up, eventually finishing 5th Jonny was disappointed, but he really shouldn’t be, the competition was very strong this year, and there is plenty for him to work on for next year. Albert had a good race finishing 16th just 3 minutes off the winner.

Junior Women’s K1 – Jenny Illidge has been racing very well all year, there were high hopes of a medal at the worlds this year, unfortunatly it did not happen this year for her, Jenny finished 7th 1.28 minutes down on the winner. Jenny is a very capable racer and I think this race will only help fire her up for next year where hopefully we will see two British Junior girls racing.

Men’s U23 K1 – Well done to Tim Pendle, 5th Under 23 in the World, a very good race to watch and Tim did us proud staying with the front group the whole way, but not quite having enough energy to challenge at the last portage. Lets hope Tim can improve on this next year and bring home the Gold for GB. Nice one!

Saturday
Junior Men’s K2 – started the day off with fast and exciting race, mainly pushed on the two Hungarian crews, who managed to 1st and 3rd places, 2nd place going to Argentina. Great Britain’s Jonny Tye teamed up with James Webster, strong portages and very strong gutsy paddling took them to 5th, they didn’t have the best start, and with the race being so strongly contested it was going to be a big task getting back in the front group. Jonny and James said “we were going for a medal, so initially we were disappointed, but we knew we gave it our best shot, in the end we are very pleased, and look forward to learning from the weekend”. I believe this already strong and talented K2 will come back next year to dominate the Junior racing.

Junior Women’s K2 – Up next are the World Cup winners Vicki Crouch and Alice Haws, and Jenny Illidge teaming up with Laura Ferguson to take on the best crews from around the world. The pace was set high from the start with COUNTRY pushing hard and portaging well, both British crews were paddling and portaging well, but it was Vicki and Alice who came out on top taking 4th, very impressive paddling from this young crew. Jenny and Laura took 9th, this race was Laura’s World Championship debut , although she said it wasn’t the best race for them, they should still be happy, top 10 in the world is not easy.

U23 Women’s K1 – While the Juniors were tearing up the lake, Lizzy Broughton was quietly preparing for her Under 23 World Championship race, this is Lizzy’s first senior international. Lizzy is know for winning the famous Devises to Westminster 125 mile race, but this was a very different game and Lizzy didn’t disappoint. The Italian Stefani Cicali bored everyone by paddling away (again) on the first lap and winning by an hour or something, but there were humans in the race too and they fighting it out for 2nd place keeping the pace fairly high, Lizzy paddled and portaged very well, crossing the line in 11th only 5 minutes down on 2nd place, and I’m sure she will build on that next year.

Senior Men K1 – After a lazy 10 hour sleep, plenty of TORTILLA for breakfast and a good hour of PAC-MAN, myself and Jon Simmons caught the bus down to the course for lunch, only to be disappointed by the bake bean/smash/un-cooked mystery meat combo they served up, I was stressing out about not eating enough lunch while Simmons (with bake bean sauce around his mouth) laughed at me, “Chill out mate! Just get the beans down you and we will find something else to eat.” Something else came in the form of a small pot of pasta. By now 2:45pm was coming around way too fast, time to check the boat over again and start drinking SIS Go electrolyte drink; the sun was beating down on the windless lake, I wasn’t about to let dehydration become an issue. I wished good luck to Simmons, had a quick pep-talk with my portage support dude Jonny Tye, about what drink to use on which laps, dad said the same thing he always does “have a good one son”, a bit of arm swinging and I was ready to go; everything is perfect!

The lake feels fast, and a nice breeze picks up to take the sting out of the sun, we line up, I’m next to Busto, the starter says the usual thing ‘bek plez 176, beeeek plez 142, GET BEK 176!! READY GO!!!’ I didn’t get my usual flyer but not too bad, I look across to Olympian Emanuel Silva (POR), he looks like he’s not even trying! Across to his wash… wait… SOMEONE IS TURNING ME! I hear Len Jenkins shout “keep paddling!” I AM BLOODY PADDLING MATE! back into the V, and now I’m at home. At home is pretty much were I stayed throughout the whole race, nothing went wrong really, portaging was nice and simple, my leads were hard but I felt like I didn’t need to rest much. Me, Busto (ESP), Len Jenkins (RSA) and José Ramalho (POR) broke away, every lap people caught us up and then dropped off on the portage, not a problem, even on the last big lap Mic Leverett from Australia puffed his was back up to us and straight past us into the lead! But by this stage we were playing the tactical game and not putting the pace down, I didn’t really mind doing work, I felt fine, I just didn’t want to be in the ‘V’ going into the last portage. Len Lead it in, we we all out clean but I had a flyer, I was feeling great so I legged it… at this stage the grass on the portage was mainly mud, it was so slippery people were going down in almost every race so you can’t run flat out.

Jonny Tye (portage support extrodinaire) on the previous portage told me to ‘go down the feeding lane on the next portage!’ even though I wasn’t taking drinks, but I know Jonny is a good racer so I trusted him, I later found out that although longer, the feeding lane was a lot less slippery and faster. I jumped back into my boat and put my head down, I knew that if I was hurting, so were the others, ‘No one gets past’ is all I could think. I thew everything at that last 500m, the line was getting closer and I wasn’t slowing down! AMAZING! I cannot describe the feeling of relief once I made it across that line, everything came together perfectly. Manuel Busto (ESP) came in 2nd just 2 seconds behind me, and Len Jenkins (RSA) came home to take 3rd, Portugal’s José Ramalho took 4th.

Senior Women’s K1 – Representing Great Britain was Claire Gunny from Wey Kayak Club, Claire has had a consistently good season, gradually improving though the World Cups (ranked 2nd overall on points this year!). As I was racing I did not see Claire’s race, but I am told she had very good one, portaging well and eventually taking 8th place winning the 3rd group home. I am sure Claire will have another good winter and come back next year looking for at least a top 5. The race was won in the end by Hungarian Renáta Csay 27 seconds ahead of Anna Adamova (CZE) with Frederike Leue (GER) in 3rd.

Sunday

After all the excitement of the past two days racing, you would think Sunday would be almost an anti-climax, far from it thanks to our senior men’s K2 of John Sawers and Andy Daniels taking a very well deserved 4th place, correct me if I am wrong but is this not the best men’s K2 result we have had since the days Ivan Lawler & Steve Harris? The guys flew out of the blocks and into the front group, this race was an intense mixture of flat out sprints, slow tactical sections and long catch-ups after killer portages, I was so pleased to be only watching! I know from experience that 4th is not a fun place to finish at all, and initially the boys were disappointed, but I think they managed to get the very best result possible on the day, considering they pretty much jumped into a K2 together only a few weeks ago. They finished the race in the V, which is essentially a crazy move but there was no way they could come past the World Champions from Spain, but a horrible feeling of being so close to a medal, these guys will get one next year for sure… if they want to. Congratulations.

Senior Women’s K2 – We didn’t have one. Yes I know, what the hell right?! Our Ladies Sprint team is getting stronger by the day, we have at least 3 crews that could medal, 1 of which I could (almost) guarantee would win the Marathon, but no. Paddling for training is over-rated anyway I guess…

So once again as the Brits were not there to stop them, the Hungarians won by like an hour or something and it was pretty boring to watch. Shout out to Bridget Hartley and Michele Eray (RSA) for jumping in a boat last minute and grabbing 4th! Nice one! Also very well done to my good friend Lisa Sheriff who teamed up with Agnes Brun-Lie to take home the Bronze Medal!

Sunday night was meant to be spent on a plane, thanks to the fun-hateing, smile-destroying, good time burning, celebration-impairing person who booked out flights… But I just won the worlds, so I booked a separate flight and partied all night with all my favorite international friends, thank you everyone for a brilliant night (and morning!).

I just want to thank everyone who helped my achieve my goal this weekend; Mum and Dad, Samantha my sister, Roland Lawler, Ivan Lawler and Ian Wynne my coaches and mentors, Lyndsey Wynne my Chiropractor, Jon Simmons my training partner, Nelo kayaks, Jantex paddles, all the GBR sprint boys, Tim Brabants and Eric Farrell and anyone who has been patient when canoeing has come first! Thank you.
Ben Brown

To see all the results from this event click HERE and to get involved with the event on Facebook click HERE they are adding pictures of the event like the ones above courtesy of Balint Vekassy (ICF) check out his website HERE.

1. Fly out in plenty of time for race preparation with the least amount of stress to the athletes.

Who decided it was a good idea to fly out at 10pm with only 1 day before our Junior Athletes take part in the most important race of their lives (so far)? Someone, PLEASE take all decision making responsibilities away from them in the future.

Good, well with that little grumble out the way we did eventually get to Banyoles safely without stressing out too much about sitting on the runway for 2 hours, locked in a Lucky Dip Airlines toy plane breathing recycled, disease ridden, baby poo smelling, budget airline suffocating, insufficiently oxygenated, athlete killing air.


We woke up this morning to a warm misty Banyoles with all the promise of  a beautiful wind free day. A 30 minute coach ride took us to the course and we were not disappointed, “The water is blue” pointed out the ever observant Jon Simmons, not much gets past this guy, but he had a point, this was possibly the most perfect lake I have ever paddle on. You can see right to the bottom of the lake, as well as your blade going through the warm water. No wind at all, about 22°C air temp and things are looking up, a complete contrast to the last world cup in Brandenburg.


The portage is very user friendly, a low pontoon get out with a straight 100m run on grass followed by a low pontoon get in, no trouble apart from a big tree in the middle of the run, and the 90° approach to the portage should be interesting.


The first World Championship events kick off tomorrow with the Junior Men K1 (Jonny Tye & Albert Hicks) & Junior Women K1 (Jenny Illedge) in the morning, then the U23 Women (Lizzie Broughton) and U23 Mens K1 (Tim Pendle) in the arvo.
Who to look out for? Jonny Tye has been training with us recently and is going very well, I have him down for a medal tomorrow, and Jenny Illedge has been performing well all year so I also predict she will medal.


There are rumors of live steaming of the racing on Saturday and Sunday on the official website HERE and there are regular updates on their Facebook page HERE.


Race Pace will also try to keep everyone up to date on Twitter HERE and on Facebook HERE
Sweet!

However, from what I understand the Surf Ski community is generally small and there are already a handful of companies making very good skis that all the top athletes are happy with. Nelo, with their new style K1 influenced skis won’t find it easy to break into this market, so they need a lever to ping the new boats into the arena; the Nelo Summer Challenge. As well as being a perfect excuse to host a weekend long party, with it’s growing popularity this event will quickly settle into both the surf ski and flat water racing calendars very nicely.
For the majority of people like myself the event began a couple of days before the first race on Friday, having never done Surf Ski I needed all the help and practice I could get before the races, and I wasn’t alone.

Last year there was only the Spec Ski ’round the cans’ 800m race on the Saturday, this year included a Down wind 10km race on the Friday as well. Not forgetting Saturday nights entertainment, which conveniently is Europe’s biggest Beach Party!

It’s no coincidence this event is held the weekend after the Flat Water Sprint World Champs, invited athletes included Olympic Champions; Ken Wallace (AUS) & Eirik Larson (NOR), our very own Tim Brabants and other Olympic/World Medalists such as René Poulson (DEN), and with with the exception of the Ozzie bunch the flat water paddlers are mainly useless in a Ski, and are mostly there for the party. People love to line up with these guys though, having the chance of beating Olympic heroes is pant-wetting excitement for most.

The first training session on Tuesday evening had 20 boats, and the next morning saw well over 30 boats practising the 10km course, I think most people were pleased to have flat windless conditions for their first try, but I was mainly bored after 2 completely flat 10km slogs and just wanted some hard core conditions!
Fortunately the wind did pick up the next day, but was going in the opposite direction of useful, so another slog but into a headwind this time, it wasn’t until Friday, the day of the race that the wind and the waves came.

The wind was low in the morning and due to pick up late afternoon, so the organisers simply moved the start time from the morning to 4pm. Good move; the conditions were perfect, 2m swell and strong NW wind. For most racers this was pretty scary stuff, but for the seasoned ocean racers it was a mere ripple, it very quickly separated the men from the slap-supporting, buoyancy-aid chewing, capsizing, safety boat following boys.
The start was in the safety of the harbour, on a small beach where 200+ competitors were never realistically going to fit, we had to start in the water to fit everyone in, standing next to your boat up to your tits (for me anyway) ready for the ideal start; to leap graciously into the vessel and lead it all the way to the €2000 hotspot at the entrance of the harbour 600m away. Some people were sitting in their boats, so not wanting to be left behind I got in mine too, I then got out once the starter threatened a 2 min penalty for starting in your boat, this didn’t stop some people cheating though, not naming names but the guys who’s names rhyme with Samuel Doosto (ESP) and Flyvan Trawler (GBR), lucky for them the penalty was just an Idle threat! Anyway, I managed to get in my boat first time which put me out the back of the two front groups, about 20th I think, the €2000 hotspot was never for me, but Ken Wallace (AUS) managed to scoop the beer money.

The numbers soon dispersed when we raced out of the harbour leaving the flat water behind, big rolling swells and a head/cross wind for 2km west north west put me around top 10 at this stage, we then turned south to go with the wind. Everything changes at this point, people tried telling me ‘don’t work to hard into the wind, you will suffer when we go downwind’ they were right. Catching the ‘runners’ is the aim of this game, the small waves created by the wind that are moving faster than you can paddle, catch one of these and you accelerate along with a most satisfying lack of effort, and then the wave drops away and you practically stop. This is where the pros read the water, they move around and ‘link’ the runners so they limit the stalling effect, therefore increasing their average speed and with less effort too. This, is very hard to do, short intense 10 stroke bursts of effort are required to sprint onto the runners and move from one to another. This is hard work, particularly if you are used to just working quite hard constantly for 2 hours on flat water!
The second and final turn buoy was about 1000m straight out from the finish, but I was concentrating so hard on catching some runs I headed too far in to the shore and had to deviate back out to make the turn, this I think lost me about 4 places, oh yeah then I got really tired, and bloody Eiric Larsen, Ivan Lawler and Glen Eldridge came steaming past me in the home straight!

I caught a wave into the beach, jump out the boat, leave it behind then a quick run up the sand and it’s all over. ‘Man that was amazing! Where did I come?!’ is what most first timers were saying straight after the race, myself included. Turns out I came in just behind Glen Ederidge (GBR) in 16th place about 5 minutes down on the winner, not bad really, but at the time I was mainly annoyed at not scooping a top 10 and taking some prize money! Although the results online said I came 28th, I can assure you this was a mistake, I will explain later in the post. We the stood on the beach watching the other competitors get eaten by the 6ft shore break that was picking up boats, bodies and paddles and dumping them on dry sand; brilliant entertainment, although a little worrying at times!


Tim Jacobs (AUS) won the 10km race beating 2nd place Ken Wallace (AUS) by 45 seconds, 10 seconds later 3rd place went to David Smith (AUS). Considering the event is only in it’s second year, there was plenty of prize money if you can place top 10, the winner of the 10km took home €3500, second place €2000 and third €1500, add the €2000 hot spot in and your on to making some good money.


The second day of racing involved the Spec Skis, as far as I could tell they are simply shorter and more stable than the Ocean Skis, with more volume at the front for getting through breaking waves. On paddling one I soon realized they turn way faster, are much heavier and are actually not much more stable! We didn’t really have time to use them much before the first heats were off, there were 2 races worth of boat and we just had to move the footrest to suit leg length, memorize where it went and change it in your allocated boat just before your race. Racers started about 30m up the beach with just your paddle in hand, boats waited for you down nearer the sea. Fortunately the hideous shore break was gone, which made for slightly easier getting in, you then sprint off round 2 buoys about 300m away and back home, trying to catch a wave to surf in, then jump out the boat and run up to the finish line, same as yesterday in the 10km and the top 5 went to the Semi-finals.

There were over 12 heats in total, and repechage races for those who didn’t make it through 1st time. I managed to pull a sweet heat draw with no Ozzies or South Africans, and went through to the Semi quite easily, which payed off in the Semi as I had some energy left and once again managed to progress to the final…

In the final was quite a hefty line up, including most of yesterdays top 10, a few world champions, last years winner Ekaitz Saies and a heap of dangerously inexperienced flat water paddlers like myself, fortunately for me some of the big guns like Wallace and Jacobs (AUS) got tangled up with each other just after the start, allowing me to have a clean race and just nip into 9th place!

The women’s racing was very competitive, with Bridget Hartley (RSA) winning and taking €2000, Lani Belcher (GBR) took full advantage of the fact that anything can happen in these race and scooped €1500 for coming second, just ahead of Michel Eray (RSA) who came third adding €1250 to here €3500 win the in the 10km the day before.

This was not without it’s difficulties though, and this has to be pretty much my only complaint about the whole event; the finishing officials was useless. They had decided to funnel the racers who had just crossed the line through a fence and take their competitor  number on the way out, unknowing to almost all the racers this was their finishing list.

Myself and others had stopped just after going through the finish line and had been overtaken by people before we walked out of the finish area, causing our end result to be worse. In my case, in the 10km I stopper and chatted to people for a few minutes before I left the area! I realized what had happened when I wasn’t called up for my prize money after the sprint event, and asked to see the video footage of the finish, my result was then corrected but by that time they couldn’t recall all the money etc, I still got my €150 though, and a telling off for not “finishing properly”. Speaking to the top guys at Nelo they did not know this was happening, and I am assured it will be fixed for next year.


While all of Saturdays racing was going on, just behind the Nelo stage and racing area Europe’s biggest beach party was being put together, a huge stage with heaps of bars, eating places and lights everywhere, Ben Farrell and I did a little wee with excitement when they cranked the volume up for the sound check during the day, we would be back around 11pm. People didn’t really turn up until about 1am, but the music was good and the raised up Nelo stage and bar made us feel like we had our own VIP area, we were also treated to a live performance from Vanilla Ice, causing us to mainly sing ‘Ice Ice Baby’ which changed to ‘Arse Arse Baby’ after we heard the South Africans ding it with their funny accents!

All in all, a brilliant weekend, very well organized. I would like to thank Nelo for their limitless hospitality, they seem to love looking after people, hosting parties running events, I am sure the number of competitors will double next year, and hopefully the prize money will too! As for me, I am trying to decide what color to order for my new Nelo Ocean Ski…

For more information on this event click here; summerchallenge.nelo.eu

Stay tuned for pictures of this event, and links to some videos from Nelo

Jonnie and Liam, the unbeaten all year 200m crew were unfortunately, beaten. In what has to be the closet race of the weekend, they came 3rd (time 31.584) just 0.052 seconds behind the winners ARNAUD HYBOIS and SEBASTIEN JOUVE (FRA) (time 31.532) with second place going to SAUL CRAVIOTTO and CARLOS PEREZ (SPA) (time 31.540). On Twitter Schofield says “World Championship Bronze medalist! Bittersweet, but will become sweeter with time…:)” which shows the pair are positive about the race and already looking forward to next year where I am sure the tables will turn. Congratulations on your medal guys.


The racing was not over for Cawthorn though, Rachel still had one more final to race; the K4 500m, she joined Abi Edmonds, Louisa Sawers and Hayleigh Mason to take on the world.

Like the K1 500m, the K4 500m is an Olympic discipline, making it one of the most hotly contested events of the weekend. The brits took 5th place, storming through to the line taking as many places as they could in the last 200m, finishing just 0.164 seconds from the Bronze medal, and 2.372 from the Hungarian winners. Germany took 2nd with Poland 3rd. Very impressive performance indeed, particularly when you consider Rachel has already raced in 8 races, covering 5500m even before she started the K4 final.

Jonny Boyton and Ed Rutherford had a fantastic B final this morning, winning in a time of 1:32.252 just beating the Canadians by 0.288 seconds. A very good weekend for this new crew, and I am sure they will be very happy indeed. Boyton will be particularly happy, as the bullying about never having been to a worlds will now ease off!

Another racer who had covered a lot of ground before his 500m final was Tim Brabants. Most likely still on a high from his inspiring 1000m Silver yesterday, Tim went out of the blocks hard and was 4th at 250m and almost in touch with ADAM VAN KOEVERDEN, however his 9000m of racing before this final must have caught up with him a bit as he could not catch the three guys in front of him, and in the end had to settle for 4th in a time of 1:39.785, just 1.328 seconds down on the winner ANDERS GUSTAFSSON (SWE) all things considered an incredible achievement and what a come back from the Doctor, congratulations Tim.



Jess Walker had the B final of the day winning it in style in a time of 41.313 seconds, which would have put her 7th in the A final, where I believe she should have been racing. Well done Jess.


Jenna Hawkey and Angela Hannah had their K2 500m B final this morning, they took 7th place just 4.116 off the winners from USA, and very nearly took 6th place. Generally a good regatta by the newly formed K2 although as they are not in contention for qualifying a K2 for 2012, I expect there will be a change of crew for next year. This being said, and knowing the women’s coach Miklos, no one can predict what the team might be. Good racing girls you should be very happy with your results.
Last but by no means least, the Men’s K1 200m Relay. What a great event to watch, although looks a little bumpy to race! They say for every act of stupidity in the world there is an equal act of intelligence, this makes sense here as the 200m relay is clearly brilliant, so the women’s C1… well you catch my drift.

Our boys have performed out of their skin this weekend, and they didn’t let us down in the relay either, taking the Silver just under half a second down on last years relay world champions – the Spanish. Ed cox will be particularly happy with this result as he has been training exclusively for the 200m relay all year. Congratulations guys!

I have been talking a lot recently about the ongoing task of making sprint canoeing more interesting for Jo Public, and the need for more interaction from sponsors to help grow the sport as a whole. One suggestion I have to for the ICF decision makers; a new rule for the 200m relay, involve a baton. Think of all the extra things that can go wrong! Think about how exciting the 4x100m running relay is, or Formula 1 when there is a crash… Better yet a flip flop could be used, there you go; sponsorship from Havianas can be lined up already. Also, why are the ‘spectator events’ not shown on Eurosport? Just a thought.

Well done to everyone, overall a very successful Sprint World Championships.

Brownie.