On Sunday 23rd July a team of five Bishops Stortford club members plus two guests from Hong Kong competed in the Medway Marathon. The race starts immediately upstream of the tidal barrage on the River Medway at Allington and proceeds along the non-tidal part of the river through Maidstone and Yalding before finishing in Tonbridge.
 | Conditions were perhaps tougher than recent years following a week of heavy rain for this 17 mile upstream race with 9 challenging portages. As well as paddling against a reasonable flow there was also a light headwind to contend with. Despite the tough conditions Matt Parkes produced a PB of 7 minutes and 49 seconds to finish 4th in a strong Class A K1 field. |
Matt should take a lot of confidence going into the National Championships next weekend from his time of 2:19:36 having stayed with a group of top end Div 1 paddler's including Luke Bowyer, Oscar McCittrick and James Russell for the first third of the race before eventually being dropped at one of the tricky portages and finishing just 24 seconds off James Russell in 3rd place.
| Chris Sze finished in a good 4th place in the Class B K1 race in a time of 2:49:24 ahead of Gordon Bullock (competing for Barking) who finished 9th in a time of 3:06:28 having won his group sprint finish. Danny Beazley and James Smythe put in a solid and much improved performance from Leighton Buzzard to finish 4th in 2:20:44 in the Class A K2 race. This was 6 minutes 47 seconds slower than two years ago but considering the increased flow and the comparative lack of water fitness they can also head into the National Championships with a lot more confidence that their form is returning. |  |
Our club guests, Antoni Li and Racy Leung, having only arrived in the country the evening before the race from Hong Kong finished 10th in the Class B K2 race in a time of 2:55:19. This was particularly impressive given that this was their first race in the UK and presumably they were shattered from both the time difference and journey.
All in all this was a great set of results at a very well organised race by Tonbridge Canoe Club.
All in all this was a great set of results at a very well organised race by Tonbridge Canoe Club.
