 | The race at Chelmsford was held in the channels that run through the town, where the water can get very choppy. On the positive side, there were no portages to contend with. There was the biggest field of paddlers in the Men's Vets race seen at the series so far. Rich W got off to an excellent start and narrowly missed out on a bronze position. Kerstin & Catherine yet again won the Ladies medal in the K2 race and also came 4th overall. Well done to Karen on winning her first Winter Series medal in the Ladies K1 race. |
On the 3-mile course, Eddie was narrowly outpaced in the Boys u14 K1 race by the winning Chelmsford boat and brought back a silver, and the same thing happened to Dave in the GPs by an even tighter margin.
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Despite a capsize at the start of the mixed u12s race, Libby was able to make up much of the lost time to take 4th overall and 1st Girl.
 |  Photo: Flora K |  |
| 8 miles: 16+ K2 - Kerstin Queeney & Catherine Ayling 4th (1:07:48) Vet Mens K1 - Richard Winstanley 4th (1:08:03), Petr Luksan 16th (1:22:21), Jaroslav Klumpler 18th (1:24:36) u18 Boys K1 - Tom Barton 4th (1:18:59) 5 miles: u16 Boys K1 - Jack Gaulton 6th (54:44) Ladies K1 - Karen Bradley 3rd (1:00:35) u16 K2 - Oliver Klumpler & Finlay Sandall 2nd (1:11:23) u16 Girls K1 - Eilidh White 2nd (1:00:09) 3 miles: u14 Boys K1 - Edward Kirtland 2nd (22:22) u14 Girls K1 - Zuzanna Madeja 5th (34:56) GP - Dave Cayford 2nd (30:50), Jacque Cayford 5th (36:30) u12 K1 - Libby Gaulton 4th (30:23), Nadim Shawky 7th (39:00), Emilie Klumpler 8th (42:18) Please note that due to late notice of the eligibility of some participating paddlers, the Dick Grieve points for this race have had to be recalculated. The club has had good support from our novice juniors throughout the series to date, and although the home team put out a number of their own novice juniors and overtook us on this occasion, the points scored for Stortford by Oliver, Finlay, Eilidh, Zuzanna, Libby and Emilie have ensured that we are still in the lead and remain favourites to win the Dick Grieve Trophy. In total points, the club came second at this race, behind the winners Chelmsford. Although still second in the Winter Series league at this point, this position could still slip away from us if Leighton Buzzard pull out all the stops for their home race on 23rd. See the league table here.
Many thanks to Jacque for the prizegiving photos |    |
