A team of six from BSCC went up to Nottingham for the first National Sprint Regatta of 2025 over an unexpectedly glorious sunny April weekend. They took part in K1, K2 and K4 races over 200m/500m/1000m on the 2km long, purpose-built regatta lake at Holme Pierrepont in Nottingham. The weekend also served as a selection event for national canoe and paracanoe teams, so the paddlers were sharing the water with Olympians and Paralympians past, present, and future.
Jasper Kirtland was particularly successful at this event. His class (Boys D) was incredibly competitive, with multiple heats and 2 finals in each race. Jasper qualified in 2nd place in his heat for the K1 200m final, where he finished in 5th place (53.02), and again in 2nd place in his heat for the K1 500m final, where he placed 8th (2:22.08). Teaming up with Knoah Ayran from Falcon canoe club for the Boys D K2 200m race, they qualified in 3rd place in their heat, and managed to remain in 3rd place in the final, finishing in 51.94. Jasper also teamed up with paddlers from Leighton Buzzard, Falcon, and Cardiff canoe clubs to finish in 2nd place in the Boys D K4 200m final (49.83). Following the weekend’s racing, Jasper has been promoted to Boys C class.
Jamie Winstanley also raced in Boys D, unfortunately capsizing in two of his heats – however, he joined forces with paddlers from Glasgow and Worcester canoe clubs to take a stunning second place in the Mixed Boys/Girls D K4 200m final in 51.01.
The club had two competitors in the Men C class – Joao Spinola and Rich Winstanley. Joao competed in the K1 1000m, coming 7th in his heat in 4:41.34. He also took part in the K1 500m, finishing 5th in his heat, in 2:24.37. Rich won his heat, and finished in 4th place in the final of the K1 1000m, in 4:18.10. He also finished in 5th place in his heat for the K1 500m, but with a time that qualified him for the final – where he finished 7th, with a time of 2:14.65. Rich also competed in the K1 5000m race, which was for all Men in class A-C – he finished in 17th place, with a time of 21:46.81.
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Joao and Rich teamed up to take part in the Men A-D class 1000m K2, where they finished in an excellent 4th place (4:22.18), and again in the Men C/D class K2 500m, where they finished once more in 4th place (2:00.14), showing a true aversion to the podium.
| Also competing for the club was Rupert Kirtland in the Mini Sprint A class (for under 12s), where he finished 8th in the 500m K1 final (3:18.36) and 8th in the 200m K1 final (1:19.73). Teaming up with F Noud of Salmon Leap club (based in Northern Ireland), they came 4th in the Mini A/B 200m K2 sprint, in a time of 1:11.81. However, it was in the Mini Sprint K4 races, where he teamed up with 3 other Salmon Leap paddlers that Rupert really shone, taking 1st place in both the 200m and the 500m finals, in excellent times of 1:00:98 and 2:44.51 respectively. In the Paddle-Ability class, Oliver Klumpler finished 3rd in both the K1 500m and 200m (1:00.13) races, the first junior paddler to finish in both races. He also achieved a PB of 2:41.88 in his 500m race, and promotion to a higher Paddleability time band. |  |
