Category: Hasler Races - BSCC

Leighton Buzzard Hasler (18 Jul 2021)

18/7/2021

A dozen Stortford paddlers faced fiercely hot weather to compete at the Leighton Buzzard Hasler, and came back with seven gold medals and two silvers.

On the 12 mile course, Joe won Div 2 in a time which was less than a minute under the promotion time to Div 1.

Mike & Chris won their doubles race on the 8 mile course, and Jacque & Dave repeated their success at Norwich to do the same on the 4 mile course.

Tom B and Edward took the top two positions in Div 9, despite Tom stopping to help Edward recover from a capsize, in a perfect demonstration of the sportmanship which runs through kayak racing. Edward's finishing time confirmed his transition into Div 9, despite being under 14.

Three members of the Klumpler family were competing for the first time, with particular success for Oliver who won the remaining gold medal of the day for the club in Div C, one of the new u14s divisions. As a consequence he has now been promoted to Div B.

Others taking part in their first race to great credit were Karen (Div 9) and Jasper (Div C). Oliver and Jasper also raced a second time to take bronze in the mini-K2 race.

There were 89 competitors at the event, drawn from 7 Eastern Region clubs and 5 clubs from further afield, including a strong showing from Banbury.

SINGLES -
12 miles, 6 portages
Div 2: Joe Fitzpatrick 1st (1:37:17)
4.5 miles
Div 9: Thomas Barton 1st (45:13 adjusted), Edward Kirtland 2nd (45:32), Karen Bradley 4th (46:50), Jaroslav Klumpler 6th (48:01)

DOUBLES -
8 miles, 2 portages
Div 4: Mike Panrucker & Chris Sze 1st (1:10:51)
4.5 miles
Div 8: Jacque Cayford & Dave Cayford 1st (41:20)

GEOFF SANDERS (u14) -
2 miles
Div B: Emilie Klumpler 5th (32:15)
Div C: Oliver Klumpler 1st (20:30), Jasper Kirtland 2nd (21:19)
K2: Jasper Kirtland & Oliver Klumpler 3rd (20:09)

The full race results have now been published.

Photos courtesty C Sze & F Klumpler

Nationals (10-11 Jul 2021)

12/7/2021

Seven members of the club went to the National Marathon Championships at Reading, most taking part in both K1 and K2 classes across two days of racing.

Everyone did well at this prestigious annual event, but none more so that James Smythe who came 5th out of a field of 26 in his singles race and partnered Stuart Dunn to a Gold Medal in doubles.

25.2km, 2 portages
SMK2: Joe Fitzpatrick & David Gurney [CLM] 15th (2:09:54)
SMK1: Joe Fitzpatrick 12th (2:00:10)
U23 SMK1: David Gurney [CLM] 13th (2:03:10)

12.6km, 1 portage
O44 VMK2: James Smythe & Stuart Dunn [IND] 1st (56:32)
O44 VLK2: Kerstin Queeney & Catherine Ayling [MAI] 4th (1:08:26)
O49 VMK1: James Smythe 5th (59:58)
O49 VLK1: Kerstin Queeney 5th (1:15:37)

8km
O54 VMK2: Mike Panrucker & Chris Sze 15th (39:23)
O59 VMK1: Chris Sze 9th (41:46)
O64 VMK1: Gordon Bullock [BAD] 7th (45:41)

See full results here.

All photos by Chris Sze

Norwich Hasler (23/5/2021) & Reading Circuit (30/5/2021)

31/5/2021

The first Eastern Region Hasler to go ahead since the autumn of 2019 was held by Norwich on 23 May, and was attended by a small team from BSCC. You can tell how chuffed these three are to be back racing from their expressions!

There are no club points being awarded this year due to the pandemic.

19.5km, 2 portages
Div 2: David Gurney (CLM) 5th (1:33:55), Joe Fitzpatrick 6th (1:39:47)

13km, 1 portage
Div 4 doubles: Gordon Bullock (BAD) & Chris Sze 3rd (1:06:35)

Photo courtesy Chris S.

6.5km
Div 7: Kerstin Queeney 5th (37:08)
Div 8 doubles: Jacque & Dave Cayford 1st (38:27)

The Norwich website has the full (provisional) Norwich results.

Three club members also went to the Reading Circuit Race on 30 May and competed with success.

12 miles, 2 portages
Div 2: Joe Fitzpatrick 4th (1:36:15)

8 miles, 1 portage
Div 4 doubles: Gordon Bullock (BAD) & Chris Sze 4th (1:06:09)

The Reading CC website has the full (provisional) Reading results.

Chris's videos of the races can be seen here:

Chelsmford Hasler (20 Oct 2019)

23/10/2019

The 2020 Hasler season got off to a good start at Chelmsford. Although the Stortford team (21 in number) was small by the standards of a couple of years ago, it was the largest team we have put out to an away race in the past year - and over half of those who went came home with a trophy!

Connor and Kerstin paired up to win Div 6 doubles with a time which also beat most of the Div 5 doubles crews as well.

Other awards went to Jacque & Dave (1st in Div 8 doubles), a 2nd for Jamie G & Jamie M (2nd in Div 7 doubles), and Catherine & Maddison (3rd Div 9 doubles).

Well done to our four Lightnings who all won trophies in their respective classes!

Although no Stortford paddlers made the podium in Div 9 singles, the race saw some exceptional results. Jack (technically still a Lightning himself) came 6th out of the 24 competitors, and new team members Alex and Tom H gave sparkling debut performances.

Connor's mum Jo also raced for the first time, partnering Josepha to a 4th place in Division 9 doubles.

DOUBLES -
8 miles, 8 portages
Div 6: Kerstin Queeney & Connor Higgins 1st (1:20:36)
3 miles, 2 portages
Div 7: Jamie Gaulton & Jamie McAdam 2nd (31:53)
Div 8: Jacque Cayford & Dave Cayford 1st (34:38)
Div 9: Catherine Robinson & Maddison Loveday 3rd (42:29), Joanna Brewer & Josepha Wallbank 4th (52:24)

SINGLES -
8 miles, 8 portages
Div 5: Mike Toomey 10th (1:26:35)
3 miles, 2 portages
Div 7: Malcolm Duckworth 11th (34:49)
Div 9: Jack Gaulton 6th (38:20), Alex Mulvey 9th (39:46), Eilidh White 11th (40:57), Thomas Holloway 12th (41:06); Kayleigh Gaulton 18th (44:50)

LIGHTNINGS
2km
u12 Boys: Edward Kirtland 2nd (24:05)
u10 Boys: Hudson Loveday 3rd (20:33)
u10 Girls: Libby Gaulton 1st (20:08), Genevieve Wilson 2nd (20:44)

There were 181 paddlers at this event drawn from 9 clubs in the Eastern Region plus some independents from further afield.

Overall we scored 221 points and came a very respectable 4th. Chelmsford CC were the winning club (234 points) with Leighton Buzzard CC 2nd (232) and Norwich CC 3rd (228).

See

STOP PRESS: Jamie G has been promoted to Div 7!

B. Stortford Hasler (7 Jul 2019)

19/7/2019

The fourth Bishops Stortford Hasler had the usual good turnout of competitors, with large teams of roughly equal size from Norwich, Chelmsford, Leighton Buzzard, Cambridge and ourselves, five smaller teams, and a smattering of out-of-region paddlers.

Water levels in the Stort were low, but considerably recovered from earlier in the week when, for a time, it seemed as if there was not going to be any water left in the river to run the race. Fortunately, CRT stepped in to fix the leaky lock gate which was at the root of the problem.

All available volunteers in the club had to be mobilised to undertake all the jobs associated with this complex event, with its separate morning and afternoon sessions and simultaneous upstream & downstream starts. Massive thanks are due to the small army of members and family who undertook timekeeping, on-water safety, towpath sweeping, turn marshalling, catering, entry booking, and car park marshalling, many of whom were also competing in the race.

David G was our fastest paddler , winning div 3 by a comfortable margin and gaining a promotion to div 2. Jenny & Kerstin took silver in div 7 doubles, while Catherine & Talal teamed up to achieve the same in div 9 doubles. Also in div 9 doubles, Eilidh partnered Maddison to gain bronze - a particularly pleasing result as Maddison is extremely new to the sport. Meanwhile, Maddison's brother Hudson, another new recruit taking part in his first race, won u10 boys Lightnings.

Jamie G narrowly missed out on the medals in div 9 singles despite putting in a very good performance, but was able to go home with a promotion to div 8. Special mention should also be made of Josie, who gained a very creditable 8th place in div 9 in her first ever competition.

DOUBLES -
11.5km, 6 portages
Div 4: Connor Higgins & Chris Sze 4th (1:05:00)
Div 5: Mike Panrucker & Ian Abrams 6th (1:11:56)
6.5km, 2 portages
Div 7: Kerstin Queeney & Jennifer Burtwell 2nd (46:57)
Div 8: Jacque Cayford & Dave Cayford 4th (52:20)
Div 9: Catherine Robinson & Talal Sajad 2nd (59:37), Eilidh White & Maddison Loveday 3rd (1:02:15)

SINGLES -
19km, 8 portages
Div 3: David Gurney 1st (1:30:26), Euan Caton 6th (1:38:52)
11.5km, 6 portages
Div 5: Ricky White 8th (1:11:57), Kevin Warbrick 9th (1:12:02)
6.5km, 2 portages
Div 9: Jamie Gaulton 4th (52:56), Josie Pretious-White 8th (56:16), Leo Ranade 14th (1:08:11), Kayleigh Gaulton 15th (1:10:24)
Div 10: Jack Gaulton 2nd (58:59)

LIGHTNINGS
2.5km
u12 Boys: Fabian Nyikos 5th (20:54), Edward Kirtland 6th (21:52), Josh Ranade 7th (22:23)
u12 Girls: Gemma Beazley 3rd (19:42)
u10 Boys: Hudson Loveday 1st (22:54), Killian O'Dwyer 2nd (22:57)
u10 Girls: Libby Gaulton 2nd (21:13)

The event was won by Cambridge CC with an impressive 237 points, only 3 short of the maximum. Overall, Stortford finished 5th - the position we have occupied for all the previous races of the season bar one. It was therefore no surprise to find ourselves 5th in the Eastern Region League table and excluded from the national finals. A disappointing result for a team that twelve months before was joint winners of the regional cup. But a fresh season begins in October, and who knows what that will bring.

The full results of the race can be found on the marathon website.
You may also want to look at the final league table at the end of the season (or, if you are from Stortford, possibly not ...)

Bedford Hasler (5 May 2019)

9/5/2019

Not so many Stortford paddlers turned out for the Bedford race. The highest points scorers were David G who took silver in Div 3 singles and Ant & Kerstin who took bronze in Div 7 doubles. Jacque & Dave also won silver in Div 8 doubles but were not close enough to the 1st-placed crew to score.

Doubles:
Div 4 - Chris Sze & Mike Panrucker 8th (1:09:05)
Div 7 - Ant Wright & Kerstin Queeney 3rd (39:41)
Div 8 - Jacque & Dave Cayford 2nd (44:34)
Div 9 - Catherine Robinson & Eilidh White 4th (50:55), Phil Brewer & Josepha Wallbank 5th (1:14:33)

Singles:
Div 3 - David Gurney 2nd (1:43:23), Euan Caton 6th (1:51:54)
Div 9 - Jamie Gaulton 10th (48:54), Jack Gaulton 13th (52:09)

The low turnout was reflecting in a disappointing 6th place overall for the club which, coming on top of a 6th place at Cambridge, leaves BSCC standing 5th in the Eastern Region League.

The full race results are on the MRC website and the league table can be seen on our results page.

Photos courtesy of Andrew Gurney

Cambridge Hasler (7 April)

14/4/2019

Twenty-two BSCC paddlers took part in the Hasler at Cambridge.

Medal winners were Chris & Mike P, who came second in Div 4 doubles. There were also 3rds for Jennifer & Kerstin in Div 7 and Dave & Jacque in Div 8.

In Lightings, Libby and Genevieve took 1st and 2nd places in the u10 Girls.

Racing for the first time were Talal and Josepha, and new Lightnings Edward K & Genevieve.

Doubles:
Div 4 - Chris Sze & Mike Panrucker 2nd (1:23:06)
Div 7 - Jennifer Burtwell & Kerstin Queeney 3rd (38:21), Malcolm Duckworth & Ant Wright 4th (39:24)
Div 8 - Jacque & Dave Cayford 3rd (41:26)
Div 9 - Ken Duncan & Josepha Wallbank 5th (1:04:56)

Singles:
Div 5 - Mike Toomey 5th (1:30:07), Kevin Warbrick 7th (1:31:34), Ricky White 12th ( 1:42:24)
Div 9 - Jamie Gaulton 10th (45:47), Jack Gaulton 15th (47:44), Leo Ranade 18th (53:22), Talal Sajad 19th (55:58), Catherine Robinson 20th (56:43)

Lightings:
u12 Boys: Edward Kirtland 5th (34:48), Josh Ranade 6th (38:03)
u10 Girls: Libby Gaulton 1st (35:36), Genevieve Wilson 2nd (35:51)

The results are on the MRC website. A few photos from the race can be seen on Flickr.

Hasler Finals 2018 at Norwich (30 Sep 2018)

20/10/2018

Having secured the club's place in the National Hasler Finals with a rather spectacular joint first place in the region, it was disappointing that a number of those who had qualified to participate (by finishing in at least three races during the year) were not in the end able to turn out for the final itself, due to injury, illness or prior commitments.

The team of 23 who did go included a good balance of singles and doubles, and together they achieved a total score of 164 points, making the club 9th overall out of 31 clubs participating. The winners were Chelmsford CC (227 points) and Norwich CC were runners-up (222). Cambridge CC were 10th with 160 points. With all four of the Eastern Region clubs who had qualified for the event finishing in the top 10, there can be no doubt that the standard of racing in our Region is as high as anywhere in the country.

The star performers in the race included Adam Beaumont, who brought home a gold medal as winner of Div 3, and was also promoted to Div 2. Eugene Kokorin also had an excellent race, finishing 5 in Div 6 and being promoted to Div 5.

There were other notable singles results in Div 3 from David G. (who narrowly missed out on a promotion) and Euan, while Matt P. recovered well to finish 11th in Div 2 after a swim at the start. In doubles, Chris and Matt M.'s 5th place in Div 4 was particularly impressive against a field of 26 crews.

Doubles:
Div 2 - Danny Beazley & James Smythe 4th (1:35:12)
Div 4 - Chris Sze & Matt Mills 5th (1:13:41), Octavia Abbott & Mike Panrucker 21st (1:21:38)
Div 6 - Ant Wright & Ian Abrams 8th (1:25:17)
Div 7 - Jennifer Burtwell & Kerstin Queeney 14th (41:28)
Div 8 - Jacque & Dave Cayford 11th (44:25)
Div 9 - Catherine Robinson & Eilidh White 11th (52:32)

Singles:
Div 2 - Matt Parkes 11th (1:37:37)
Div 3 - Adam Beaumont 1st (1:35:47), David Gurney 6th (1:38:31), Euan Caton 14th (1:42:21)
Div 5 - Mike Toomey 26th (1:27:38)
Div 6 - Eugene Kokorin 5th (1:27:28), Lexie White 17th (1:33:00)
Div 7 - Melanie Bennett 32nd (45:31), Malcolm Duckworth 36th (46:30)

Full results from the event can be found online.

B. Stortford Hasler (1 Jul 2018)

3/7/2018

Fantastic results for the Stortford team at our own Hasler race - despite everyone needing to double up as marshals etc when not actually racing.

The event attracted the biggest field of Lightnings this season, including quite a number from Stortford, several racing for the first time. In total there were 183 kayakers competing - unusually no canadians at all, though few leisure C2s passing through were a bit bemused to find themselves on the start line!

The high temperatures did not stop everyone from giving their best. A total of 12 medals were achieved in the divisional races: one bronze (Malcolm), four silvers (Ricky, Eugene, James S. & Euan) and a whopping seven golds (Kerstin & Jenny, Adam & David, Matt, and Neil & Connor).

The combinations of doubles pairings worked well, and everything came together to deliver a home win. To cap it all off, it has now been announced that Neil and Connor are promoted to Division 5.

Although it was evident, even before this race, that the club's earlier successes in the season (especially the win at Chelmsford Hasler and the second place at Norwich) had secured our place in the Hasler finals, nobody had dared to dream that we would finish at the top of the Eastern Region league - albeit jointly with last year's national champions Chelmsford.

The National Marathon Championships are coming up, and then the National Hasler Finals. It really does feel, as Danny said, that "anything is achievable".

Big thanks are due to the army all the members, family, club members and paddlers from other clubs who turned out to help with all the preparations, and all the work on the day, including starts/finishes, on-water safety, towpath sweepers, turn marshals, catering, entries/results, car park, and a plethora of other jobs.

DOUBLES -
19km, 8 portages
Div 3: David Gurney & Adam Beaumont 1st (1:27:22), Euan Caton & James Smythe 2nd (1:27:40)
11.5km, 6 portages
Div 4: Octavia Abbott & Tim Beaver 5th (1:08:48)
Div 5: Mike Panrucker & Ian Abrams 5th (1:11:26)
Div 6: Connor Higgins & Neil Boast 1st (1:08:55)
6.5km, 2 portages
Div 8: Kerstin Queeney & Jennifer Burtwell 1st (49:48), Jacque Cayford & Dave Cayford 4th (53:12)
Div 9: Catherine Robinson & Fifi Dunphy 4th (1:09:19)

SINGLES -
19km, 8 portages
Div 2: Matt Parkes 1st (1:28:24)
Div 3: Josh Young (rtd)
11.5km, 6 portages
Div 5: Ricky White 2nd (1:11:12), Mike Toomey 4th (1:11:44), Kevin Warbrick 5th (1:12:37)
Div 6: Eugene Kokorin 2nd (1:17:10), Ant Wright (1:32:13)
6.5km, 2 portages
Div 7: Malcolm Duckworth 3rd (49:18), Melanie Bennett 12th (52:42)
Div 9: Eilidh White 9th (59:45), Jacob Gazey 15th (1:01:49), Jamie Gaulton 16th (1:7:15), Kayleigh Gaulton 19th (1:13:05)

LIGHTNINGS
2.5km
u12 Boys: Jack Gaulton 5th (20:21), Leo Ranade 8th (21:45)
u12 Girls: Gemma Beazley 5th (21:11), Alice Boylan 8th (23:58)
u10 Boys: Jamie Winstanley 5th (35:18)
u10 Girls: Libby Gaulton 2nd (23:04), Elizabeth Boylan 3rd (27:00)

See

the full results
regional league table
some race footage on You-Tube from Neil's head-cam: start / overtaking at portage / another portage / finish
photos by Angela on Flickr

Cambridge Hasler (25 Mar 2018)

20/4/2018

Euan and Connor teamed up for this race and proved to be a most successful pairing. They finished a good 4 minutes ahead in the Div 6 doubles race, and as well as their trophies, Connor was also able to take home a promotion to Div 6.

Stortford dominated the top of the division 7 singles race, taking 4 of the top 6 places. Murdo brought the team another first place with Eugene 3rd and James D and Malcolm 5th and 6th respectively.

Jacq & Dave took a well deserved third place in Div 8 doubles.

Jack and Jamie G had their first taste of Hasler racing. Eilidh moved up into Division 9, and Leo completed his first ever race.

DOUBLES -
14 km, 4 portages
Div 4: Mike Panrucker & Alasdair Bruce 5th (1:25:54)
Div 6: Connor Higgins & Euan Caton 1st (1:23:52)
7 km
Div 8: Jacq & Dave Cayford 3rd (41:02)

SINGLES -
21 km, 4 portages
Div 3: Dave Hallam 5th (1:55:28)
14 km, 4 portages
Div 5: Kevin Warbrick 9th (1:34:57)
Div 6: Lexie White 10th (1:38:50)
7 km
Div 7: Murdo White 1st (40:12), Eugene Kokorin 3rd (40:34), James Daly 5th (41:16), Malcolm Duckworth 6th (41:27), Judith English 20th (45:38)
Div 9: Brian Owen 8th (45:35), Eilidh White 14th (51:00), Jamie Gaulton 18th (52:42), Catherine Robinson 19th (53:05), Cory Jones 21st (57:02)

LIGHTNINGS
3 km
u12 Boys: Jack Gaulton 7th (26:40), Leo Ranade 8th (27:30)
u12 Girls: Gemma Beazley 4th (28:34)

Despite some excellent individual results, the final totals left Stortford only 5th overall, cancelling out much of the advantage from the win in the previous race. However, we are still third overall so there is still every possibility of a good season ahead.

See