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Regatta London – a new event on 29th September 2019

A message from the organisers of Regatta London:

Regatta London a new event on 29th September 2019 – an event to celebrate and race on the Thames through central London!  Regatta London is taking over the river on 29th September to put paddle sport on the big stage; with a fully closed river, during a barrier closure.  Join them to take over the Thames and bring the spirit of paddle racing to this most iconic stretch of water.

What does paddle sport miss that running and cycling have had for decades?  A central London mass participation event.  An event that brings together the whole range of people from elite racers to weekend warriors, junior (16+) to master/veteran.   Regatta London is being built to sit alongside the major London sports events, and bring paddle sports to the country and inspire like never before.

This hugely iconic stretch of water will be taken over to host Regatta London, with a full river closure on the day the Thames Barrier is closed, the conditions will be unique, and the experience should be remarkable.  With the sense of occasion that will come with the finish village at Greenwich Naval College, we’ll be able to shout about, and celebrate, the great communities within paddle sport.

There will be two 12 mile courses, the London Crossing (Putney to Greenwich), and the Big Ben (a looped course from Putney to Westminster and back). The Big Ben is aimed at the touring boats, while the London Crossing is the race event.  There is only one inaugural Regatta London, and they can’t wait to see who’ll be sitting on the top spot ( kayaks, rowing or paddleboard ) after the 19 bridges of Central London.  With chip timing, end to end safety cover, and a welcome home for champions and challengers, this event aspires to new levels.

Imagine what paddle sports can achieve with this platform.  Imagine if we had a major Central London paddlesport event!  This is Regatta London.

For full details see https://regatta.london/

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Sanabria K4 Report from Paul Dimmock, Team Manager

The annual invitation to the K4 events in Valladolid and Sanabria by the Royal Spanish Canoe Federation again did not disappoint.  There was high quality racing, exceptional hospitality and national teams from Hungary, Czech Republic, Argentina, Denmark, Portugal, ourselves and – of course – the home nation, Spain.

The GB crews selected were:

Women

Anoushka Freeman (Royal Leamington Spa), Lizzie Polgreen (Falcon Oxford), Mags Dilai (Nottingham), Anna Railton (Falcon Oxford)

Men

Albert Hicks (Norwich), Lewis Kirton (Royal), Peter Wilkes (Foy), Tom Simmons (Bradford on Avon)

Friday K1

As a prelude to the main racing, there were K1 races on the Friday over a 3.8km course with two entries per nation per class.

Anoushka & Lizzie and Lewis & Peter raced in packed fields and all put up strong performances, finishing 6th, 9th and 6th and 12th respectively.  It definitely got everyone in the mood for some quality racing, as there was sense that this was only the aperitif to the main events that were yet to come.  There was a real sense of anticipation in the GB camp that evening.

Saturday Valladolid K4 5k  

It was a crowded start line and there some big names on the water.  With countries using this as a sharpener for the Euros next weekend, the start was predictably fast and, on a tight river with 40 plus boats, both the men’s and women’s teams had an uphill battle (literally up the washes) from the start.

Tom stroked a quality race, but realistically it was an impossible task once they got behind.  However, if the men were having a challenging day at the office finishing 8th, the Hungarians struggled as well – finishing a couple of places behind GB.  This meant both crews had a point to prove the following day in Sanabria.

As with the men, the women’s boat (stroked by Mags) also struggled with the early pace.  However, with quality stroking and determination, the GB crew pulled back to 2nd place.  Alas however, the early effort had emptied the tanks and they finished 5th.

Sunday Sanabria K4 5k

A new day a new venue.  At Sanabria it was the same format – 5k over two laps.  This time both crews adopted a fast start strategy and launched their respective boats to the very front of the race.  As Lewis said after the race “after 500m I dared to look over to our left and we were head to head with the Spanish and Danes!”.

It was the same for the women, when a world class start put them at the front of the race battling it out with the Spanish and Hungarians.  Both British crews now had the space to move as they wanted rather than, as yesterday, being pushed to the back in the dirty water. The GB men stayed in the leading group throughout until the penultimate turn buoy.  Here the pick-up in pace just proved too much, and team GB and the Portuguese had the painful task of sitting a couple of boat lengths behind the leading group.  The finishing order was Denmark, Spain, Czech Republic, Hungary, Portugal, GB.

After their blistering start the women settled into a strong cruise along with the other top nations.   Again, similar to the men, when the big efforts came for the turn buoys they just missed out.  They also had to contend with the wash from a launch carrying an excited TV camera crew, which made a return to the front group a step too far, leaving them finishing 4th behind Spain, Hungary, Denmark.

The combined results placed Team GB 4th in the medal table, with our crews always in the top 8 over the finish line.  This was a more than credible result for a development squad but, as is the way with high achieving athletes, they wanted more and are looking to return next year to improve.

As Team Manager there are always logistical challenges, changes to programmes, transportation issues etc, but these are all part of the job, so to speak. However, the reward is the privilege to work alongside athletes who give their all on the regatta course.  The K4 teams at the weekend gave absolutely 100%, so you may think they fulfilled their part of the team equation. However, what isn’t reflected in the results is the commitment they gave to supporting one another, and the ambassadorial role they played representing British Canoeing on and off the water.

Paul Dimmock

National Marathon Team Manager

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Race Coach Course – MRC/SRC Bursary

As we move into the summer and the MRC/SRC bursary for the British Canoeing Race coach award continues, it would be helpful to know how many clubs would still like to put coaches forward for the award and the bursary.

We have had 60+ coaches complete the Race discipline specific course so far, and are now starting to allocate funding for the assessment to finish the qualification.  As the funding is from a finite amount, we need to spend it in the most effective and beneficial way for the clubs and sport.

If your club is wanting to put coaches through the award – or if it has already done so and is now wanting to arrange an assessment – then let us know so we can plan to help out accordingly, as it is on a first come, first served basis.

A reminder – the original information on the bursary and the course can be found here.  As the BC course finder isn’t working fully at the moment, we also have a list (not exhaustive) of course providers and assessors that we can put you in contact with.

Finally, a big congratulations to the clubs and coaches who have undertaken the course, and to those that’ll be passing this year – well done!