Three Royal Canoe Club members have represented Great Britain over the last month at three different championship events.
Ellen S raced at the European Marathon Championships in Decize, France in July – her first time representing Great Britain at a championships. Racing K2 with her partner from Worcester Canoe Club, they came 14th in a very competitive field.
Also in July, at the European Junior & U23 Sprint Racing Championships in Racice, Czech, Stuart Bristow raced K1 500m and K1 1000m, managing ‘B’ finals in both.
Zoe C race the K1 & K2 500. She was disappointed in her K1 500, making the ‘B’ final, but the 8th place in the K2 was a better result.
Stuart and Zoe then stepped up a level to race at the Junior & U23 World Championships in Pitesti, Romania. Stuart narrowly missed the ‘A’ final in both K1 distances, but had some consolation by emphatically winning the K1 1000m ‘B’ final, as well as coming 4th in the K1 500m ‘B’ final.
Zoe, in her second and final year racing as a junior at the World Championships, had a tough 18 hour period from Saturday afternoon to Sunday lunchtime. She was racing K1 & K2 500m, which are close together in the programme. Having completed the two heats on the Saturday afternoon, in the Sunday morning semi-finals, she qualified first for the K1 500m final, then 60 minutes later, with her partner from Oxford, for the K2 500m final. In the K1 ‘A’ final 80 minutes after that, she was 9th and in the K2 ‘A’ final a further 80 minutes later, managed to come 8th. Four flat out 500m races in under 4 hours is tough – but making two world championships ‘A’ finals in Olympic disciplines was never going to be easy.
Photo Credit – Ellen – Ellen at Marathon Euros – bottom right
Photo Credit – British Canoeing – Stuart and Zoe at Sprint World Championships – all others