WS 2021-22 Race 1: Stortford Results

After missing an entire season due to the pandemic, it was good to see the Winter Series running again -  especially as this is 2021, the 40th anniversary of the series being formalised. It was therefore particularly appropriate that the start and finish marshals for the day were Ron and Alison Thorogood, winners respectively of the Senior Mens K1 and Senior Ladies K1 series trophies back in  the 1981/82 season!

The trend towards doubles racing continued, with 20 K2s  and one C2 entering Class 9. Women are increasingly well represented, with the gold, silver and bronze medals in Class 9 all going to mixed crews. There were also three all-female crews in this class.

The Mens Veterans race (Class 7) was the second biggest class with 16 entrants, so that taken together with Class 9, these two classes made up over half the competitors present.

Ali Kabeer from Wokingham, won Class 5 (u16 MK1) in a time of 44:43 and thus came quite close to beating the 5-mile course record for the Stortford race, which was set at 43:03 in 2010 by Lewis Duffield.

Class winners were:
Class 9 (Senior K2/MC2) - Matthew Johnson & Leah Falltrick (CLM)
Class 8 (K1 Open) - Tim Gannicott Porter (CLM)
Class 7 (Vet M K1) - Doug Herbert (CLM)
Class 6 (u18 M K1) - Adam Baker (LBZ)
Class 5 (u16 M K1) -  Ali Kabeer (WOK)
Class 4 (16+ K1 & Adv C1) - Leanne Brown (BAD)
Class 3 (u16 K2) - Naomi Fuller & Tara Kathikeyan (CLM)
Class 2 (u16 F K1)  - Eilidh White (BSF)
Class 1 (TC2) - Adrian Pyke & Judy Pyke (CAM)
Class Blue (u14 M K1) - Cassian Payne (CLM)
Class Red (u14 F K1 & C1) - Johanna Milbradt (CAM)
Class GP - Deborah Wilkes (CLM)
Class Yellow (u12 K1) - Noah Nobbs (NOR)

A total of 109 competitors took part, drawn from twelve different clubs. Despite sending a much smaller team than usual, Chelmsford were still dominated the event and won easily (210 points), with Stortford second (119) and Leighton Buzzard third (83).

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 5th December.