Juniors

Our junior members take part in the Paddlesport Challenge, Dragon Boat Racing, Sprint and Marathon racing.   Juniors are encouraged to take part in the BCU paddlepower scheme which helps to develop their skills whilst ‘messin’ about in boats! Juniors are welcome to attend any of the following sessionswhich take place between April and October.

• Racing Time Trial ~ Monday !8:30
• Junior Dragon Boat Training ~Wednesday 18:30
• Paddlepower ~ Wednesday 18:30
• Junior Racers & DW Trainees ~ Thursday 18:30 and Saturday 10:30
• Club Paddle ~  Sunday 10:00 and Wednesday 18:30
• Ladies Dragon Boat Training ~  Sunday 10:00

Please ensure that you arrive at least 15 minutes before the  session is due to start.

• When junior members are attending events or trips away from the club, a parental consent form must be completed. Download here

Well done to everyone who raced today.  Shame the weather wasn’t kinder to us but it is a bank holiday weekend after all!

Thanks also to all the adults who helped the event to run smoothly.

Click here to see the results

Three club juniors; Sara and Hafsa Kabeer and Ed Pearson took part in this year’s Hare & Hounds Series at Wey Kayak Club. The series was blighted by bad weather and races had to be rescheduled on several occasions.  Nevertheless our youngsters stuck with it and were rewarded with some good results. Sara bettered last years’ time by 5 min 16 secs,  Ed by 8 mins 04 secs and Hafsa by 4 mins 01 secs.  Hafsa won the best Lightning category.  Well done all of you.

 
We will be paddling the Lower Dart (or Barle), travelling by minibus. 
This trip is aimed at juniors aged over 14 years who are 2* paddlers. Younger paddlers who are of the required standard may be accepted, please phone Sam (07816 075096) or Marion (07721 023415) to discuss.
 
We aim to leave the centre at 8:00 and return by 20.00. The cost of the trip will be £20 (members) £25.00 (non-members).
 
To book a place please either sign up on the noticeboard or email Sam.
 
A junior consent form needs to be completed for this activity.

Hot off the press ~ Wokingham Dragons in awesome form at the Longridge Dragon Boat Regatta and proudly showing off their medals and the magnificent trophy.  Watch this space for a full report and more pictures.

Our junior team, the Wokingham Dragons will be competing in this regatta.  They will be up against 11 other teams in the 14 and under category and this will be their toughest competition to date.  They have been training hard for the event and are looking strong. They hope to finish the season undefeated. 
 
I’m sure they would welcome the support of other club members. The event starts at 09:00 but the most exciting racing will take place in the afternoon. So if you’re free on Saturday please try and give the juniors some support. You won’t be disappointed – these regattas are usually very exciting and fast moving.
 
Here are directions to Longridge: http://www.longridge-uk.org/files/Directions_To_Longridge.pdf
 
If you have any questions please phone Rod Hart on 07771 685834

A big well done to Aaron Thompson who competed in the World Dragon Boat Championships in Prague.
Aaron has been training with the GB junior team since being selected in April.
During the four days of competition the team took part in junior ‘open’ and ‘mixed’ events over 1000m, 500m and 200m. They won through to the major final in the ‘mixed 200m’ event and paddled brilliantly to win the bronze medal. 
It is the first time in six years that the team has won a medal at the world championships and the juniors were the only GB team to win a medal at the event! So it really is a fantastic achievement.

If you look carefully you can just see the top of Aaron’s head, third from the back.

Congratulations to Hafsa Kabeer on becoming U10 Lightning Champion at the National Championships at Longridge on Saturday 29th August.  It was a hard fought race with 16 starters on the backwater.  Hafsa narrowly beat Madi Barnicoat of Longridge by one tenth of a second.

 (Courtesy of Reading Post 3/9/09)

Well done to all Wokingham paddlers who took part in the event.

Wokingham juniors put in some great performances at the TVC race on Sunday. It was a great day for the Jarretts with Olly promoted to Div 5 and Fraser promoted to Div 8.  Congratulations to Magnus Gregory and Ed PEarson 2nd and 3rd respectively in the U12 Boys Lightnings and also to Hafsa Kabeer first in the U10 Girls Lightnings. Further success came for Hafsa and Magnus when they came second in the U12 Hody race.

A team of juniors has been taking part in the BCU south Paddlesport Challenge.  This series of ten events were designed to improve skills, build team spirit and most importantly to keep juniors paddling over the winter months.  There were ten events this year including canoe polo, dragon boating, K1’s and K4’s and Slalom.  The series finale was on June 28th at the Pangbourne Regatta – Wokingham won that event and went on to be runners up in the whole series, being beaten into second place by Pangbourne.  Blackwater Valley finished third.

The team were presented with a trophy  (which is on display in the cabinet), individual medals and will also receive  £100 prize money.

A big WELL DONE to our team:  Jamie Boyt, Joe and Jack Foster, Magnus Gregory, Sara and Hafsa Kabeer, Marie and Remi Lucas, Edward Pearson, Ben Rollinson and Aaron Thompson