Hasler finals - we went, we saw, we had fun
Teams who routinely qualify for the hasler championships tend to get a bit complacent about the whole thing. Not us. But we’ve never qualified before.
It was a great day out - lots of boats (very easy to lose your car in a field at an event of that scale when you’re used to looking for the one with v-bars on it), lots of people, race starts for each division bigger than the combined race entry for whole midland haslers, lots of swimming, some excellent portaging, some dire portaging - including taking out two paddlers on the water by hitting one around the face, turning round to see what solid object your boat hit and in doing so, wrapping it around the back of someone else’s head, one crew getting out the wrong side of their boat, lots of swimmers, one boat being emptied over the heads of a K2 team who were trying to get out…
As a club we came twelfth out of 32. Given that most of our paddlers are concentrated in the lower divisions and we’re only a small club, I think that’s pretty bloody amazing.
Once again the seniors were shown up by the lightnings who came second in the country, beating Leighton Buzzard (their aim) but being beaten by Nottingham by 8 points. Bad luck guys but an excellent effort. The lightnings accounted for both of our podium placings - with Florence 3rd in U12 girls and Rose 2nd in U10s.
Everybody worked hard and did well but special mentions are deserved by the following:
- Oliver, Holly and Phil Robinson (and Cal) for flying in for the weekend from Malta;
- Will Bevan, the only div 9 paddler to race the div 4/5/6 race and was seen smiling afterwards; and
- Susan Mundy and Sebastian Banks in their second ever lightning race, their first time on a river and the fist time they had ever seen that many boats and for finishing with the biggest grins ever seen at a race.
Tags: Burton, hasler finals