Medals galore at British Indoor Kayak Championships

  

The second British Indoor Kayak Championships were held at the Lee Valley Athletics Centre, North London over the weekend of 27 & 28 November with the 200m individual and 5000m team events on Saturday and the 500m and 1000m events on Sunday.

Burton had a strong presence on the first day of the programme with 25 paddlers representing the Club, including probably the biggest entry of any club in the team events with 6 teams in all and returned with five individual National Championships gold medals and one team gold as well as two silver and two bronze medals.

Youngest entrant was Ross Orme in the boy’s U12 category, picking up the bronze medal with 52.2s for the 200m race.  In the Boy’s U14 class, Ollie Barker of Paget High School finished 8th in 47.1s and James Bowley of Paulet High School finished 10th in 52.5s. a bit slower than his heat time.

Matthew Bowley, Paulet High, a Junior Great Britain International, was third in the U16 class, collecting the bronze medal with 37.9s whilst Micheal Walters in the U23 class was 14th in 44.1. Tim Lawrenson, of Derby University, in the overall ranking list was 15th in 36.1s.

In the veteran classes, Tim Barker was 8th in the V35’s in 43.0s. whilst Howard Blackman won the first of his gold medals and National Championships, in the V45 class in 38.5s.

The Junior Ladies were to bring more success for the Burton squad. The first of their gold medals was to come from Grace Draper of Paulet, won the Girl’s U14 National Championship in a personal best of 45.5. The U16’s saw two medals come to Burton, a silver for Sarah Walters of William Allitt High School, 44.8s and gold for Lauren Barker of Paget in 43.1s, the third National Champion of the day.  Completing the medal run Stephanie Roberts of Robert Sutton High School, coming equal second in the U18’s with 45.2s.

Following the lunch break, the 5000m team event started. These were the most exciting and physically demanding races of the weekend with teams of 4 to 6 constantly swapping to keep up the virtual “boat” speed, each member repeatedly doing a 200 to 500m sprint with short rests in between efforts.

Race 1 had 3 Burton teams, the U18 girls of Barker, Walters, Roberts and Simone Orme of Ashby Grammar, the U14 girls of Draper, Lily Draper of Paulet, Libby Marlow and Sophie Bancroft, both of Paget, and the U14 Boys team of Bowley (J), Barker, Orme, Joe Marlow and Nathan Cox, both of Paget.  Each team work extremely hard with the U18 girls near the front throughout the race and eventually finishing second in 24m 51.5s behind an U18 boy’s team from Norwich and just ahead of an U18 girl’s team from Wey. The U14 girls were fifth in 26m 19.7s whilst the U14 boy’s were 6th in 27m 08.8s.

  

Lauren Barker in the foreground with Grace Draper third
up and Joe Marlow just beyond.
Photo credited to: Antony Edmonds

Race 2 saw two more Burton crews, the men’s team of Neil Orme, David Walters, Adrian Roberts and Micheal Walters and a mixed team of Debbie Crump, Hannah Wheeler, Ju Walters and Steve Ball.  Again, both crews worked incredibly hard with the Men’s team reaching third at times before eventually finishing 5^th in 24m 10.1s whilst the mixed crew were 7th in 26m 01.3s.

Race 3 had the top crews, with a Burton team of Lawrenson, Bowley, Blackman and Barker. Again, another thrilling race ensued with the crowd roaring all the teams on. Burton were challenging for third throughout the race but eventually had to settle for fourth with 18m 34.3s. When all the races were compared, there was more good news for Burton as the U18 girls had set the fastest time of the day in the ladies class and collected a further gold medal.

After the excitement of the previous day, Sunday was a quieter, calmer day. Most of the team had gone home and only Howard Blackman remained. Blackman was to extend the Burton medal haul with wins in the 500m and 1000m event for the V45 age group, receiving his medals from Olympic Champion, Tim Brabants.

A great weekend for Burton, one that will encourage further hard work over the winter ready for the new season.

 

Burton Team 

Bill Lawrenson
Local Club Coach - West Midlands
Canoe England
T: 0845 3709549
M: 07794 051293
E: bill.lawrenson@canoe-england.org.uk
W: www.canoe-england.org.uk