RACE REPORT- MID WEAVER- 10/06/01

As the foot and mouth restrictions began to ease, the marathon races started to happen again. This race is normally the second in the year at Northwich, but the first one in March had been cancelled. MADCC, determined to put in a better show than at Runcorn, turned up with a squad of fifteen paddlers. The team was a good mixture of nine K1’s and three K2’s, with some new patnerships in the doubles and a newcomer to marathon enjoying his first race. The weather was kind once more with lots of sunshine, this made it a little bit too warm for some but we shouldn’t really complain! The events that Freestyle CC hold are allways well organised and fun affairs, today was no exception.

As ever at these events, first start of the day is the highest divisions with the furthest to go. In Div 5 K1 Simon was first off and after yet another pitifull performance trailed in last well off the pace, not even scoring points and picking up his second D notice of the year. Next start was the highly competitive Div 6 K1 which saw Neil and John in action. Two paddlers from Chester sored away from the start and proved uncatchable, with John eventually taking fourth with Neil just a second behind in fifth. This division is beginning to look very interesting as Neil, John and a couple of others are evenly matched, the race being won on the turns and the sprint at the finish. The start of the four mile racers saw an amalgamation of Div 7 & 8, with Pat having to race against the higher division. A large entry for a North West region race with ten starters, six of which were from MADCC. It must have been quite an exciting race too with only 55 seconds seperating the first eight places! MADCC’s Paul took silver, Don out for the first time in quite a while stole bronze off Mike by one second. Mark came home sixth, a very tired Pat ninth with Brian tenth. This was also Brian’s first paddle for a long time and he felt it! The doubles were low in numbers at Northwich, with MADCC fielding three of the eight entries. In Div7\8 K2 Claire and Roger again stamped their authority on the day by securing our one and only gold medal, even beating a higher ranked pair! Well done to those two. Nathan and Kerrian were doing fine untill the heat got too much and they felt the need to swim. Respect is due though, as they still managed fourth out of five, a very good recovery! In Div 9 K2 Margaret had found herself a nice young man to paddle with, a newcomer to marathon, Mark was sat in the back of the ardeche and given strict instrictions to do as he was told by Margaret. It must have worked as they took second place. Well done.

Overall it was a mixed set of results for the club with some dissappointed individuals wondering how the season is going to improve. It was another hard paddle as people are still getting back into paddling. On the day though MADCC pulled through and took top honours in the team prize, Freestyle second, Chester third, Warrington fourth, Runcorn fifth and DCP sixth. This leaves us three points clear in the Hasler table, and just three points ahead in Points and Posteriors. It’s a very close year and we will have to fight very hard to hold on to our top position.