The race at Norwich was the best attended of the series so far. The home team turned out in force and comprised almost exactly half of the 141 competitors taking part. Norwich CC clocked up their third win of the four races so far, with a maximum score of 600.

Although Stortford's Hasler team was much more modest in size (19 in the Hasler divisions), they were distributed across the singles and doubles divisions to give the maximum opportunity for points scoring, bringing the club its best overall result since 2018 - Stortford finished second with 587 points, ahead of both Leighton Buzzard CC (581) and Chelmsford CC (568).

In singles, there was another photo finish in Div 7. Jack broke free quickly leaving Ben T in the melee of the start line. However, Ben was able to catch up and take the lead to become the eventual winner. The next three places were closely contested right up to the line, with Jack missing out on the silver spot by a single second. Ben and Jack have both been promoted.

Despite being an under-14, Libby paddled in the Div 9 race. She executed an impressive start and achieved an extremely creditable finish time in her longest race to date, and as a result has been permanently promoted to Div 9.

Under 14s (Geoff Sanders)
3.5km
Div A: Oliver Klumpler 4th (26:02)
Div B: Rupert Kirtland 5th (25:31)
Div C: Nadim Shawky 2nd (25:34), Emilie Klumpler 6th (30:00)

See also

• Results on the Marathon website
  
• Eastern Region Hasler League to date
• Race photos in Angela's Flickr album
  

As usual at Bedford, the high man-made banks caused choppy water in places, and this combined on the day with a stiff breeze along the wide river to create demanding conditions for the club's youngest paddles.

Despite this there were excellent results from our seven under-14s competitors. Five of them made a clean sweep of the gold medals in the Geoff Sanders Divisions on the 2.5km course. Libby, Jasper and Rupert won Div A, B and C respectively. Rupert's time was especially good, and he now joins his brother in Div B.

Zuzanna and Emilie gained Silver in A and C. In the afternoon Libby and Jasper went on to crew a doubles boat in the under-14s K2 race over the same course, and won two more gold medals.

Under 14s (Geoff Sanders)
2.5km
Div A: Libby Gaulton 1st (29:31), Zuzanna Madeja 3rd (33:08)
Div B: Jasper Kirtland 1st (23:13)
Div C: Rupert Kirtland 1st (22:30), Emilie Klumpler 3rd (27:05)
GS K2: Libby Gaulton & Jasper Kirtland 1st (18:55)

Oliver and Finlay, also both u14s, entered the Hasler Div 9 doubles race and were rewarded for undertaking this challenge with Silver medals.

BSCC had two doubles boats on the 3-lap 13km course, both taking part in the Division 5 race. This course included two "false portages" where paddlers have to disembark and run with their boats. Mark partnered Kirsten to second place. Their time of 1:08:45 being faster than all the competitors in the Division 4 doubles race, it is not surprising that they have both now been promoted to Div 4.

Also paddling in Div 5 doubles were Eddie (Div 7) with Chris (Div 4). They finished only fractionally behind Mark and Kerstin, so Eddie too has been promoted to Div 4.

DOUBLES -
13km, 2 portages
Div 5: Mark Adams & Kerstin Queeney 2nd (1:08:45), Chris Sze & Eddie Kirtland 3rd (1:09:19)
​7km
Div 8: David Cayford & Jacqueline Cayford 1st (44:51)
Div 9: Oliver Klumpler & Finlay Sandal 2nd (1:02:32)

Most of the singles competitors from BSCC were on the 7km course. Division 8 included two Stortford entrants: Jaroslav (Jay) and Ben. Ben took the lead from the start while Jay, though initially forced to drop back by the press of boats, was soon able to catch up and the pair were in first and second place as they went around the first turn. However, Ben took a swim at the second turn, and although he was able to finish the race and make up a lot of the lost time had to settle for 6th place. Jay was overtaken by two other boats, so finished third - however, his excellent time sees him promoted to Division 7.

Stortford's highest-placed singles paddler was Eilidh, who won silver in Div 9. Also in this race, Arthur put in an impressive performance to finish 4th in his first Hasler.

SINGLES -
13km, 2 portages
Div 4: Joe Fitzpatrick 4th (1:12:43)
7km
Div 7: Tom Barton 7th (43:38), Jack Gaulton 10th (45:31)
Div 8: Jaroslav Klumpler 3rd (44:10), Ben Tubby 6th (45:40)
Div 9: Eilidh White 2nd (47:39), Arthur Catmur 4th (48:24), Karen Bradley 7th (52:32)