WS 2019-20 Race 1: Stortford Results

Despite Stortford having to announce that it was unable to provide on-site parking for everyone this year, the opening race of the Winter Series still attracted 131 competitors. Ten clubs participated as teams, and 6 more were represented amongst the Independent entries.

The senior doubles race was as usual the biggest field, with 17 boats participating - including, for the first time, an MC2. There was also a larger than usual field of 11 entries in the K1 Open class, which was dominated by Chelmsford CC who took all of the first 6 places. The boys u16 K1 race had a particularly good turnout of 14 boats, including entries from almost all of the participating teams.

Canoes were very much in evidence, thanks to a healthy 6 entries in the TC2 class, where numbers have been dwindling for the past few years.

One of the stand-out performances of the day came from Wokingham CC paddler Ali Kabeer paddling as an Independent, who smashed the boys K1 record for the short course with his time of 25:57.  The record previously stood at 27:52, set in 2013 by Tim Gannicott Porter of Chelmsford. Ali of course won gold in the u14MK1 class. See the updated list of course records.

Class winners were:
Class 9 (Senior K2/MC2) - Matthew Johnson & Leah Falltrick (CLM)
Class 8 (K1 Open) - Peter Wilkes (CLM)
Class 7 (Vet M K1) - Joe Surrage (BSF)
Class 6 (u18 M K1) - David Gurney (CLM)
Class 5 (u16 M K1) -  Sebastian Tideswell (CAM)
Class 4 (16+ K1 & Adv C1) - Lauren Avery (CLM)
Class 3 (u16 K2 & MC2) - Jamie McAdam & Jamie Gaulton (BSF)
Class 2 (u16 F K1)  - Hannah Gallagher (IND)
Class 1 (TC2) - Andy Porter & Blaize Green (CLM)
Class Blue (u14 M K1) - Ali Kabeer (IND)
Class Red (u14 F K1 & C1) - Sienna Payne (CLM)
Class GP - Mo Moule (CLM)
Class Yellow (u12 K1) - Cassian Payne (CLM)

The full race results are on the Winter Series results page. There are also a few photos of the race on Flickr here. The next race will be at Cambridge on 1st December.