News

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Our first ever race began with a mixture of nerves and excitement as we kitted up and took our places in the boat.  After a brief warm-up we were the first boat off and enjoyed our time holding the lead position!  Gradually we got overtaken by the other contenders of the race but it certainly didn’t dampen the spirits, Kathi was fantastic keeping up the encouragement even when we were battling the autumn wind and our brilliant rate-keepers, Clare and Jen ensured that we all pulled together to give it our all.  Our helm, Paul expertly guided us around the 7km course, taking the turns in his stride.  As we slogged under the bridge for the last time, Zoë, Mike and Clare’s family were there to encourage us on and finally the end was in sight – together with all the teams cheering us on till the finish, what a great feeling!  We even got a mention during the prize-giving at the end, welcoming us to our first ever competition – it certainly won’t be the last.

Thanks to our team: Jenny F, Jenny T, Sue, Mel, Karen, Clare and Katie with special guests Gary, Aaron and Sarah for achieving a fantastic time of 44min 31secs.

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.

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.

This year at the Sprint World Championships in Canada, Women’s C1 and C2  races featured as exhibition races. The GB Women’s canoe team consisted of our very own Sam Rippington  and her C2 partner, Lisa Suttle from Chelmsford Canoe Club.  Both put up very creditable performances in the C1 races with Sam finishing 7th in the 200m event and Lisa finishing 6th in the 500m.  However in the C2 events they really showed the competition a thing or two winning silver in the 500m and bronze in the 200m.

Well done Sam and Lisa on a brilliant set of results.

On behalf of the Committee, Club and myself I’d like to say a huge thank you to all those who helped with the Thames Valley Circuit Race. It was a great event which was extremely well attended. Your hard work and commitment was very much appreciated, not just by us but also by all the paddlers who took part.

It is always easy to be wise after the event and I realise that some things didn’t go as smoothly as they should have. So, I’d like to take this opportunity to apologise to anyone who was inconvenienced or felt that their contribution was not valued. If you have any thoughts or comments on how we could improve, please pass them on to me or any other committee member.

Many thanks
Gary Thompson
Chairman

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

Junior dragon boat teams from Wokingham Canoe Club have once again put in impressive performances at The Henley Dragon’s Annual Junior Regatta, winning three of the four main trophies. The club entered three teams; ‘Dragonflies’ U14 girls, ‘Wrymlyns’ U14 boys and ‘Warriors’ U16 boys. (more…)

Fantastic result for Sam Rippington – first in the Ladies K1.

Well done also to Alan Freer -11th in K1 vets and to Bob and Liz Sutherland – 6th in C2.  Full results