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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

At just 24 paddlers, this was much the smallest team the club has put out for a regional Hasler for a while, and many of the regular faces were missing. The club countered this by making sure that there were plenty of doubles pairs and that those entering for the first time were in suitable divisions. 

A strong wind - the tail end of storm Brian - made the return leg of the race more of a battle than usual.

All the doubles pairs were rewarded with a podium position, and promotions to Div 7 have now come through for new members Luke & Will Jones. In singles there were further well-deserved promotions for Mitch and Will P, both taking part in their first Hasler races. Kerstin too was only 5s off the promotion time.

A total of 189 competitors took part in the second Hasler marathon to be staged at the club. Medalists from Stortford were Siobhan & Brian (gold, div 9 doubles), Ant and Ian A (silver, Div 6 doubles), David G (bronze, div 4), and Ella & Chris S (bronze div 4 doubles). Ian A also received a promotion.

The club's Lightnings were out in force and in particular dominated the u10s and Girls u12s races to make them the winning Lightning team.

Stortford finished in 5th place at this event, which was won by Cambridge CC.  This was the last race of the 2017 season in the Eastern Region, and Stortford also ended the season 5th in the Eastern Region league.

See

• the final results
• regional league table (unconfirmed)
• photos by Chris Worrall on Flickr and by Angela on Flickr

Despite a good turnout and lots of good performances, we were only 4th at Leighton Buzzard.

Well done to Octavia Abbott who was promoted to division 4, and to Neil Boast, James Daly, James Sellstrom and Kaitie Owen who were all promoted to division 7.

See

• the full results
  
• photos by Angela on Flickr
  
• photos by Chris Worrall on Flickr
  

​All these great individual results brought Stortford a good second place overall against a strong contingent from hosts Norwich CC. It was a whole-team success, with just one point putting us ahead of Cambridge CC - yours perhaps?

​This result still leaves us in 5th position in the Eastern Region League, but only a tantilising one point off 4th. We now just need to put in some top-class performances in the two remaining races of this season, at Leighton Buzzard in June and then our home race on 9th July, to earn our place in the Hasler Finals at Richmond in September.  

Can we do it? - of course we can!

​There was success for the Lightnings too - Eilidh won u12 girls, and our youngest racer Gemma continued the Beazley family's fine heritage in canoeing with a well deserved third in the u10 girls. 

Another crop of well-deserved promotions from this race - David capped his gold medal with a promotion to Div 4, and Euan goes to Div 5.  Emilia and James D both leave Div 9 behind to join Div 8.

Photos on this page by kind courtesy of Chris Worrall. See more photos of the event in Chris Worrall's Flickr album.

Final results for the Bedford Hasler and the Assessment results can be found on the Marathon website.

Loads of new faces on the Stortford team at the Chelmsford Hasler - Luke & James Sellstrom, Sam Twaddle, Pablo & Luis Blanco, Robbie Toomey, Brian Owen, Olivia Cutts and Hudson Owers were all racing for the first time. The trailer was completely full!

There were 238 competitors, with a particularly high turnout of Div 9s which caused this division to have split starts.