Leaside Winter Series Marathon (12 Feb 2017)

For the Bishops Stortford team, the Leaside marathon proved to be very much a day of success for the ladies. Isabelle C, Yazmin and Jess made a clean sweep of the u16 Girls K1, taking 1st, 2nd and 3rd places. In the 16+ Ladies race, Octavia was 1st Vet and Lexie was 1st Junior, while Catherine won 1st PaddleAbility. Emilia took gold in u14 girls K1, and Eilidh was 1st girl in u12 K1.

Amongst the boys, Little Joe again put in another good performance in the Men's Open and was rewarded with silver. There was another well-deserved silver for Chris in Men's Vet. Luke continues to go well in u14 boys and achieved bronze. Silver medals for Paul & Richard completed the day's winnings.

7 miles:
Senior K2 - Euan Caton (partnering Danielle Clifford for BAD) 11th 1:06:01, Jacque Cayford & Dave Cayford 13th (1:17:22)
Mens K1 - Joe Fitzpatrick 2nd (57:30), Wayne Stevens 5th (1:18:27)
Vet Mens K1 - Chris Sze 2nd (1:04:26), Mike Toomey 4th (1:07:40), Steve Whipp 7th (1:11:35)

The full results for the day, and also for the series, can be found on the FRA Winter Series results page.

5 miles:
Ladies K1 - Octavia Abbott 3rd & 1st Vet (54:17), Melanie Bennett 4th (57:00), Lexie White 6th & 1st junior (1:00:28), Catherine Robinson 10th & 1st PaddleAbility (1:20:42)
u16 Girls K1 - Isabelle Crawford 1st (1:04:50), Yazmin Layzell 2nd (1:04:51), Jess Gaynor 3rd (1:13:34)
Marathon C2 - Paul Surrage & Richard Baker 2nd (58:17)

3 miles:
u14 Boys K1 - Luke Sellstrom 3rd (35:38), Connor Higgins 5th (36:45), James Sellstrom 9th (55:53)
u14 Girls K1 - Emilia Boylan 1st (34:30)
u12 K1 - Eilidh White 6th & 1st girl  (43:06)

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When it came to individual series awards, it was again a resounding victory for the Stortford girls, with all but one of the WS ladies' kayak trophies going to BSCC paddlers: Octavia (Vet), Lexie (u18), Isabelle C (u16), Emilia (u14) and Eilidh (u12). Dave H won the Mens Vet trophy.

Many of the team won series class awards:
K1 M, 3rd - Joe Fitzpatrick
K1 M Vet, 1st - Dave Hallam, 2nd - Chris Sze
K1 M u16, 3rd - Murdo White
K1 F 16+, 2nd - Octavia Abbott, 3rd - Lexie White
K1 F u16, 1st - Isabelle Crawford, 2nd - Yazmin Layzell
K1 F u14, 1st - Emilia Boylan
Marathon C2, 2nd - Malcolm Duckworth & Gary Aldam, 3rd - Paul Surrage & Richard Baker

Stortford finished the series a comfortable 2nd place behind overall winners Chelmsford CC, and also bagged the Dick Grieve Trophy for the club scoring most points from unranked juniors.

Nine of twenty-two Stortford paddlers who went to Leaside had shown true dedication by not missing a race all winter: Dave C, Jacque, Wayne, Luke, James, Connor, Emilia, Lexie and Eilidh.

Some photos of the event are online.