Despite strong winds and poor racing conditions Shark paddlers showed their abilities and that the club is on the way up.

200 metre racing took place on Saturday at Holme Pierrepoint. First to race was Adam Stewart in the Boys D Single Kayak 200m, he was third in his heat with and fourth overall with a personal best time of: 54:91. A time which would have got him fourth place in Boys C.

Ally Judge was back in action at her first regatta for two years, with a good time of 1:15.9 in the two hundred metres Woman’s D Race. Amelia Combes; was racing for the first time in Girls D and her 200 metres time of: 1:21.1, given the conditions at the time of the race this was a great achievement. first races are always scary, but when the wind is blowing and creating waves, it is even worse.

Grant Underwood; was inform in Men’s D 200 metres as he stormed into first place with a time of 50:48, a time that was faster than a couple of Men’s B paddlers on the day and would have won the Men’s C final! Grant has now been promoted to Men’s division C

500 metre racing started early on Sunday morning with Adam Stewart again achieving a personal best of 2:45.0 and just missing out on a final place.

If Saturday’s winds were bad, nothing prepared the paddlers for what was about to hit the racing lake at Nottingham, as Grant prepared for his 500 metre heat winds started to pick up, he managed a time of five seconds faster than anybody else in Men’s D (2:34.55) a time that would have been fourth fastest in Men’s C and would have been in the top half of Men’s B.

Unfortunately before Grant’s final and before Amelia’s 500m race winds reached 50mph and making racing impossible and dangerous, leaving the organisers with no choice but to abandon racing for the day.

Club Coach Beata Fabińska; was very pleased at the performances saying: “This is the first chance I have had to see a race in the UK and to see the club paddlers racing. I am very proud of them, we have been working hard over the past few months and the results were very good in difficult conditions,

The Sharks is a very exciting club that has put in place everything to make it a top flight racing club, all we need now is more people to come and join us, you do not need any experience of equipment, we will teach and coach, we will provide all the kit”.

For more information contact Neal on 07951 770241 or email: canoeing@thesharks.org.uk

Results available at: http://canoeracing.org.uk/sprint/