What a great event!
On Saturday 23rd September The Sharks hosted a Vintage (1985 rules) Slalom at the Lee Valley, along side the World Championships and it was a great day, old boats and some slightly older people having fun.
The event gave a helpful handicap according to age and according to the age of teh boat being used. The star of the event being the 1960s
Czechoslovakian end cockpit slalom C2, paddled by two brave crews.
As always a big thank-you to the people who made this possible, it was an effort by many people involved in slalom canoeing led by Rick Moore, who not only ran the day, but brought the whole event together over a number of weeks (months). As well as running the show, Rick raced, taking 6th place in the Men’s K1 event. Check out this video.
Neal Underwood was also racing K1M and came 34th in a very sparkly Elektra. Turn the volume up for this!
There were several high profile paddlers at the event, many times World Champion, Richard Fox (winner of the Men’s K1), and Olympic Champion Etienne Stott (runner up, paddling that 1970s sparkly Elektra) to mention just a couple.
So who were the brave four who paddled the 60s C2? Olympic C2 Champion Etienne Stott paired up with Tamsyn McConachie, taking second place, although the boat that came first was a close cockpit boat, so we are ignoring that. The Video!
in third place was The Sharks Eleftherios Chatzilamprou and Neal Underwood.
The success of the event was due to a number of people working really hard, not just on the day but in the build up, we have already mentioned Rick, we also need to thank Pat Thorne for providing so much help, support and materials.
The Event could not have run without the help and support Shark Club Members, I bet you did not realise you would do so much running about …
Aaron Nolan; Eleftherios Chatzilamprou; Fleur Harman; Grant Underwood; Kurt White; Jasmin Uhlhorn; and Neal Underwood.
At the same time as the Vintage Slalom was taking place the World Slalom Championships were taking place on the Olympic course, and what an amazing success for British Paddlers. Half of teh Gold medals went to GB paddlers, that make Britain the best in the World by a long way.
The one thing all these paddlers from across the World have in common, is that they wanted to have some fun and give canoeing ago an dlook where they ended up? Why don’t you come and join us and see where you could go? For more information email: slalom@thesharks.org.uk, or call/text 07951 770241.
Check out some videos from both events here.
Published 30th September 2023