Bishop’s Stortford Canoe Club win Leighton Buzzard Hasler Marathon on Grand Union Canal
Bishop’s Stortford Canoe Club got the result they needed as they won the Leighton Buzzard Hasler Marathon.
Nothing less than beating the home club - who more often than not triumph on their own water - would keep their hopes of reaching the National Hasler Finals alive.
Stortford generally do not fare too well on the Grand Union Canal and had not surpassed Leighton Buzzard on it for at least the last 20 years.
But they rose to the challenge and topped the pile by one point ahead of the hosts, with Chelmsford and Norwich finishing third and fourth respectively. Much of the credit must go to team leader Joe Fitzpatrick for motivating the team and making judicious pairings for the doubles races.
Stortford now sit second in the Eastern Region League with one event remaining - on the River Stort - and regional giants Norwich are now the team at risk of missing out on qualification.
The narrowness of the canal and its hard man-made sides caused challenging, choppy conditions, especially on the more crowded start lines.
The 13 contestants in the Division Three singles race shared a start line with the Division Two race. David Gurney was second off the line behind one of the Division Twos, taking advantage of their wash and keeping pace with them for much of the race, and won the Division Three race by completing the 12 miles and six portages in 1hr 42min 15sec.
On the 4.5-mile course there was the closest possible photo-finish in the Division Nine race between James Breeze and Chelmsford’s Agi Jankowska. Victory went to the latter by a nose, with Breeze taking silver in 46min 29sec. Both competitors have been promoted to Division Eight.
On the same course, Jamie Winstanley won the Division Eight race (44:18) and has been promoted to Division Seven - his second promotion in as many races.
Stortford paddlers were on the podium for six of the day’s seven doubles races.
Rich Winstanley (Division Two) paired up with Oleh Kuzmenko (Division 4) to take on the Division Three doubles event. Many paddlers reported having to wait for narrowboats to pass through pinch-points in the waterway, but the Stortford pair found it was quicker to disembark and go round, adding an extra portage to the usual six on the course. They completed the 12 miles in 1:38.40 to win silver medals.
On the eight-mile course, with two portages, Robert Gough and Jamie Bond got a great start in Division Six doubles and stayed in front for the whole race.
Another boat caught up with them at the first turn and sat on their tail for a while, but the Stortford pair kept up the pace and their rivals dropped away as they won with a comfortable lead in 1:15.44.
Over the same distance, Jasper Kirtland and Libby Gaulton won gold in Division Five doubles (1:11.28) and Ben Tubby and Joao Spinola collected yet more gold medals in Division Four doubles (1:06.26).
Christine Meula (Division Seven) and Zoe Norford (Division Eight) were Stortford’s fastest double crew on the 12-mile course, finishing fourth in the Division Seven race (41:50), as a result of which Norford was promoted to join Meula in Division Seven.
Benjamin Middleton, who has hitherto raced in the under-14s competition, bravely agreed to partner up with the younger but more experienced Rupert Kirtland in Division Eight. After a good start, the Stortford lads were overtaken, but were closing the gap by the end of the race as they finished second (44:31).
In a last-minute change, Jack Law found himself paired with Robin Dromard in Division Nine. This was Law’s first experience of paddling a crew boat, but all went well and the pair were rewarded with gold medals for their time of 46:26.
Stortford also took second place in this race thanks to the pairing of Kevin Short and the club’s newest member, Ionela Padina (55:48).
