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BUCS Slalom 2011
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Last Friday saw the canoe club set off to Nottingham to compete against 170 paddlers in the BUCS slalom. A technical event where competitors navigate through the waves and stoppers in the river to pass through a series of gates, some of which must be passed while paddling downstream and others which the paddler must break out of the flow and paddle back upstream for. The fastest person to complete the course wins; competitors pick up a 50 second penalty for missing a gate or a two second penalty if they hit the poles.
The weekend was eventful from start to finish with enough rain and mud to satisfy any festival lover. However with a JCB to tow us out of the campsite, a massive birthday cake to keep the spirits up, our resident medical student to patch up the president’s broken finger and numerous warnings about the need to avoid the many logs floating down the flooded river, the competition was on.
Saturday morning saw the start of the event with the men’s K1 runs. The Newcastle men put their recent training to good use with both Ralph Baker and Chris Beckett completing the course with no missed gates and Alex Blanchard and Jonny Clough also posting up quick times.
In the afternoon the mixed teams followed suit and despite trying to go through the gates at the same time as each other, Helen Blair, Sarah McGarrity and Linda Speight finished in seventh place, adding the largest amount of points to the Newcastle tally for the weekend.
Sunday morning brought the C1, C2 and ladies races, and much resulting carnage and wet competitors. Several Newcastle competitors took up the challenge of C1, a single-bladed discipline which the club doesn’t normally practice, with Malcolm Fraser in particular showing true grit and determination.
Three Newcastle teams were entered into the C2 event with the Ralph Baker and Pete Clarke coming out on top to put down an exciting and fast run to finish in a well deserved seventh place. All of the ladies showed great improvement on their results from last year, with Linda Speight the highest finisher in 12th place.
The final event of the weekend was the men’s team race; always an exciting event with the fastest teams virtually flying down the course. With five Newcastle teams entered there was strong rivalry between the teams, and the top two Newcastle teams ended up finishing within 4 seconds of each other. However Ralph Baker, Chris Beckett and Alex Blanchard hit a few less gates and won the battle, finishing in a respectable 14th place.
While we may not have had any experienced slalom paddlers to fill the top spots, Newcastle demonstrated a real team effort with everyone contributing some points to the team tally, leading to us finishing fourth overall. An improvement on last year’s result and a sign of great things to come next year, watch this space!
