Some of our senior racers have been testing their endurance with competing in ‘The Waterside Series.’
The series consists of four Sunday time trials. Each race is spaced at fortnightly intervals and progressively increases in length from 13.5 miles to 34 miles, with between 19 & 35 portages. The river conditions have been tough with fast flowing, swirly water, and very slippery, muddy portages.
Adrian & Bertie have raced well in their K2 and it’s always great to see their cheery faces at each portage. They are taking part in this series of races as part of their training towards The Devizes to Westminster endurance race, which is a gruelling 125 miles, which they are planning to complete at Easter… hopefully in under 24 hours! We wish them both well in their training and will update you with their race progress soon.
Two other club members that seem to enjoy the annual challenge of the series is Doug and Becky. The pair have raced in their K1s finishing respectfully in the top 5 each time.
Congratulations to Wendy Dodson for winning the ‘Sports Volunteer of the Year’ award.
Wendy is the head racing coach at Addlestone Canoe Club (ACC) and has spent the past 50 years dedicated to the sport, firstly as an individual athlete and in later years as a passionate coach. Wendy, along with her husband Andy, joined the club in the mid 1990’s and together founded the ‘Racing’ section and developed it into the successful program that it is today.
Wendy has been a World Class canoeist competing in numerous international events for Great Britain, including the Sprint World Championship in Sofia, Bulgaria, 1977 and winning the Marathon World Cup in Gudina, Denmark, 1983. She was also a formidable runner, top placing in the Nottingham Marathon in the early 1980s. Over the years Wendy’s passion for the sport has not waned and she still competes in National canoe marathon events as a veteran and runs with her friends weekly.
Wendy’s dedication to the sport has impacted many people’s lives. As the head race coach within the club, for over 25 years, everyone who races for ACC begins with Wendy’s coaching. From the many juniors that have been involved with the club over the years, six junior racers have gone on to represent Great Britain at International events (Sprint & Marathon) and a few have been chosen for the National Talent Program. As a small club, we have over-indexed in GB team representation verses club size, when compared with larger ‘Racing specific’ clubs. Additionally, Wendy has coached three crews (six people) in preparation for the gruelling Devizes-Westminster 125 mile endurance race.
During a recent audit of volunteer hours given by members, Wendy stood out from all others, with a mighty 467 hours per year or 9 hours per week, which she dedicates to our club, the community and the sport. Within the ACC, this includes coaching, supporting members at races, club maintenance, environmental clear-ups, committee meetings, safeguarding and first aid. Alongside her commitments to ACC, Wendy is on the British Canoeing National Sprint Regatta Committee and gives 4 weekends per year to running National regatta events plus sixteen hours at the planning meetings associated with these events.
In addition to her coaching work, Wendy is the club welfare officer, a critical role, with key responsibilities such as ensuring all adults working with vulnerable people have up to date DBS checks in place. She is an active member of the club committee and helps to organise our ‘come and try it’ days run by ACC, which encourages ‘newbies’ in the local community to try out many different forms of paddle sport, hopefully joining us as new members to enjoy the sport all year round. She also coordinates the purchase and distribution of club racing kit and branded casual clothing.
Addlestone Canoe Club is highly regarded in the canoeing community and Wendy was instrumental in the club attaining the British Canoeing award of ‘Club Mark; by leading the team writing our policies and procedures. The attainment of ‘Club Mark’ status was key to unlocking the potential of the club, enabling us to acquire funding to provide more opportunities for paddle sport in the community. Following on from this, Wendy then built the ‘development & talent pathways’ for Junior racers, which guides individuals and coaches through the stages of development from beginner to elite athlete. Addlestone Canoe Club has now been awarded ‘Talent Club’ status from British Canoeing.
Through her work in the club and the Canoeing community, Wendy has been a driving force behind bringing visibility of the sport to as many people as possible in the wider Runnymede borough. Wendy was instrumental in ACC (jointly) hosting the National Hasler Final British Marathon Racing in 2022. This took place in Runnymede and lead to the club getting recognition from the public and both local and county councillors.
Wendy’s passion for all aspects of the sport, meant that she also championed for a clean and safe environment and initiated river clean up days from ACC. These involve general litter picking and the removal of non-native invasive plant species such as floating pennywort from the local waterways. These days are fun, educational and also benefit the local community by maintaining a valuable local amenity, the Wey Navigation. Such is the popularity of these events; they have been expanded from being run in the school holidays for junior club members, to hosting locally based global companies such as Sky TV for their staff activity volunteer events. These days have been recognised by British Canoeing who presented ACC with the ‘Clear Access, Clear Waters’ award.
The racers have been taking park in a series of races over the winter at Wey Kayak Club in Guildford.
This series is based on a time trial format with the slowest paddlers starting first and faster ones later with the aim of everybody finishing at the same time. It is a very exciting event in which no one is left behind on the water. A paddler’s finishing time for one race becomes their start time for the next.
Our newest, youngest paddlers take part in the ‘Dash Hounds’ which is 5km. Sophie completed it in her K1 & Henry has taken part in most of the series in a mini-K2 with volunteer race coach Wendy.
Our older juniors and veteran racers have taken part in the ‘Hare & Hounds’ which is a 10km race up and down the river Wey from the clubhouse at Wey Kayak Club, with two portages in Guildford town centre and turning in front of St Catherine’s lock.
Well done to all of those who have completed over the series, with congratulations going to Sam who won ‘most improved Junior’ over the whole series.
This is a 13 mile race, starting at Elmbridge Canoe Club & finishing at Richmond Canoe Club racing along the river Thames. Due to the high river levels the race was postponed from its original date & then unfortunately due to the continued difficult river conditions the race had to run with restricted entry requirements.
Unfortunately, this meant that our under 16 Juniors & our racers who compete in lower divisions were unable to take part this year. Due to these restrictions we had to make some last-minute alterations to our crews so that we could take part in the event. Our two crews that were to race were our veteran & senior ladies crews of Paul & Becky, Doug & Hannah.
They raced down the river reaching speeds of up to 12mph, with the course having to be cut a little short finishing at River Lane for safety reasons. Both crews were impressed with the speed they got up to but were relieved to get out of their boats after paddling in the swirly conditions!
It has been a busy half term week and weekend for the race team.
Hannah and Emily were invited to join the England Sprint Talent Programme training camp led by Southampton Canoe Club. 15 athletes ranging from U16 Juniors to U23 paddlers travelled to Montebelo Aguieira Lake Resort & Spa in Portugal. The two girls completed 3 training sessions a day and covered the physical, tactical, and technical requirements for sprinting, covering all 3 distances (200m, 500m and 1000m). They trained in both K1s and crewboats (hired from the Nelo Center). The training camp provided Hannah and Emily with an opportunity to learn from others, build training experiences and take part in high quality sessions in mixed ability training groups. Although they trained hard throughout the day there was always time for homework /revision and the highlight of each day was the evening entertainment which was organised by different athletes each evening (this ranged from canoeing related Pictionary, card games & treasure hunts).
On Sunday we had 2 adult crews who raced in the Thameside race, from Aldermaston to Reading. Well done Adrian, Bertie, Steve and Charlie, good results which put you in the middle of your respective classes.
Other members participated in the last of the Hare and Hounds series at Wey Kayak Club in Guildford. The conditions were good and many put in their best time of the season. Particular congratulations goes to Sam who won the trophy for the most improved U14 boy, having taken part in 4 of the 5 events over the winter.
Together with Wey Kayak Club, we were proud to help host the National Hasler Final on the Thames at Runnymede. This race event involved over 600 paddlers from all over Britain, and was a great success.
Spread across the day, a mixture of K1 an K2 craft raced, finishing off with the youths in the Geoff Sanders event. Mostly the paddlers went well, albeit with a few over-keen paddlers needing to be rescued by the Addlestone safety boats.
Runnymede mayor Cllr Margaret Harnden joined in the afternoon to present a series of trophies, as well as the coveted Hasler Trophy. Elmbridge Canoe Club were crowned the winners, with Norwich Canoe Club and Wey Kayak Club also making the podium.
There was also a focus on the environment, keeping the river and surrounding area clean. Recycling of packaging and regular litter picks ensured that the event had minimal impact on the area, and British Canoeing set up a Check, Clean, Dry stand to encourage cleaning of boats coming off the water to prevent the spread of non-native species, such as floating pennywort.
Overall this was a highly successful event, thanks to a lot of work by Addlestone Canoe Club members in organising and running the day.
After a good performance at the National Canoe Sprint Championships at the beginning of July, Emily has been selected to race for GB at the Olympic Hopes regatta, taking place in September. Chris Furber, Performance Director for Canoe Sprint, said: “The Olympic Hopes Regatta is a fantastic development opportunity for the next generation of aspiring athletes to get on a high quality international start line.”