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Bedford Hasler (27 Apr 2025)

27/4/2025

Surprisingly warm weather for the Bedford Hasler, and a surprisingly good result for BSCC - our best of the season so far.

Karen & Christine won gold medals after battling hard throughout the Div 7 doubles race against a Cambridge crew. Karen & Christine have both been promoted to Div 6!

David G also had to fight for his Div 3 gold in a photo finish.

There was a good crop of silver medals. Joe & Eddie were second in Div 3 doubles; as was Joao in Div 4, despite having to stop and fix a malfunctioning rudder. Oleh came second with apparent ease in Div 5, in his first ever marathon, and has been promoted to Div 4.

Shehan paired up with Oliver to deliver some valuable points in Div 9 doubles, and yet more silver medals.

Bronzes were won by Rich (Div 2), Robert (Div 7), Kerry & Jamie (Div 6), and Jacque & Dave (Div 7)

Especially well done to our two competitors in Div 9. Zoe (6th) and James (8th) both had their points boosted by the first four finishers getting double promotions, and thus not scoring. Zoe has been promoted to Div 8, and James can be very proud of his performance in his first competition for the club.

DOUBLES -
19.7 km, 4 portages
Div 3: Joe Fitzpatrick & Eddie Kirtland 2nd (145:47)
12.9 km, 2 portages
Div 4: Kerstin Queeney & Catherine Shirley [EAL] 4th (1:12:16), Claudia Redeker & Mark Adams (retired)
Div 6: Kerry Tubby & Jamie Bond 3rd (1:19:05), Libby Gaulton & Eilidh White 5th (1:23:36)
6.8 km
Div 7: Karen Bradley & Christine Meula 1st (40:53), Dave Cayford & Jacque Cayford 3rd (43:45)
Div 9: Oliver Klumpler & Shehan Sheikh 2nd (49:00)

SINGLES -
19.7 km, 4 portages
Div 2: Rich Winstanley 3rd (1:44:51)
Div 3: David Gurney 1st (1:46:59), Ben Tubby 12th (1:55:23)
12.9 km, 2 portages
Div 4: Joao Spinola 2nd (1:13:30), Jasper Kirtland 4th (1:17:04)
Div 5: Oleh Kuzmenko 2nd (1:16:23)
6.8 km
Div 7: Robert Gough 3rd (47:27)
Div 8: Robin Dromard 4th (54:20)
Div 9: Zoe Norford 6th (49:37), James Breeze 8th (51:54)

Our Geoff Sanders competitors made up half of the entries in the under-14 classes, and all won medals. Rupert has been promoted to Div 9 and Summer to Geoff Sanders Div B - very well done both!

Under 14s (Geoff Sanders)
2.5 km
Div A: Rupert Kirtland 2nd (19:28), Benjamin Middleton 3rd (20:08)
Div C: Summer Norford 1st (20:45), Sophie Middleton 2nd (24:15)

The event was won by Leighton Buzzard CC (600), with BSCC and Norwich CC tied for second place (589), ahead of Chelmsford CC (572).

We are now at the half-way point in the Hasler season, and this result has taken us to second position in the Eastern Region league.

Sprint Regatta, Nottingham (12-13 Apr 2025)

13/4/2025

A team of six from BSCC went up to Nottingham for the first National Sprint Regatta of 2025 over an unexpectedly glorious sunny April weekend. They took part in K1, K2 and K4 races over 200m/500m/1000m on the 2km long, purpose-built regatta lake at Holme Pierrepont in Nottingham. The weekend also served as a selection event for national canoe and paracanoe teams, so the paddlers were sharing the water with Olympians and Paralympians past, present, and future.

Jasper Kirtland was particularly successful at this event. His class (Boys D) was incredibly competitive, with multiple heats and 2 finals in each race. Jasper qualified in 2nd place in his heat for the K1 200m final, where he finished in 5th place (53.02), and again in 2nd place in his heat for the K1 500m final, where he placed 8th (2:22.08). Teaming up with Knoah Ayran from Falcon canoe club for the Boys D K2 200m race, they qualified in 3rd place in their heat, and managed to remain in 3rd place in the final, finishing in 51.94. Jasper also teamed up with paddlers from Leighton Buzzard, Falcon, and Cardiff canoe clubs to finish in 2nd place in the Boys D K4 200m final (49.83). Following the weekend’s racing, Jasper has been promoted to Boys C class.

Jamie Winstanley also raced in Boys D, unfortunately capsizing in two of his heats – however, he joined forces with paddlers from Glasgow and Worcester canoe clubs to take a stunning second place in the Mixed Boys/Girls D K4 200m final in 51.01.

The club had two competitors in the Men C class – Joao Spinola and Rich Winstanley. Joao competed in the K1 1000m, coming 7th in his heat in 4:41.34. He also took part in the K1 500m, finishing 5th in his heat, in 2:24.37. Rich won his heat, and finished in 4th place in the final of the K1 1000m, in 4:18.10. He also finished in 5th place in his heat for the K1 500m, but with a time that qualified him for the final – where he finished 7th, with a time of 2:14.65. Rich also competed in the K1 5000m race, which was for all Men in class A-C – he finished in 17th place, with a time of 21:46.81.

Joao and Rich teamed up to take part in the Men A-D class 1000m K2, where they finished in an excellent 4th place (4:22.18), and again in the Men C/D class K2 500m, where they finished once more in 4th place (2:00.14), showing a true aversion to the podium.

Also competing for the club was Rupert Kirtland in the Mini Sprint A class (for under 12s), where he finished 8th in the 500m K1 final (3:18.36) and 8th in the 200m K1 final (1:19.73). Teaming up with F Noud of Salmon Leap club (based in Northern Ireland), they came 4th in the Mini A/B 200m K2 sprint, in a time of 1:11.81. However, it was in the Mini Sprint K4 races, where he teamed up with 3 other Salmon Leap paddlers that Rupert really shone, taking 1st place in both the 200m and the 500m finals, in excellent times of 1:00:98 and 2:44.51 respectively.

In the Paddle-Ability class, Oliver Klumpler finished 3rd in both the K1 500m and 200m (1:00.13) races, the first junior paddler to finish in both races. He also achieved a PB of 2:41.88 in his 500m race, and promotion to a higher Paddleability time band.

See also the full results on the Sprint Racing Committee website.

Photos & reporting: Flora Klumpler

Bedford Hasler (27 Apr 2025)

Sprint Regatta, Nottingham (12-13 Apr 2025)

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