RACE REPORT: - HASLER FINALS: - 03\10\2004

Every race report I pen seems to contain the word “ Hasler” in it somewhere. Throughout the year, August-to-August, qualifying races are held within each region where points are awarded to paddlers depending on their position in a race. The best six K1 and the best three K2 scores for each club are totalled, and the club with the best score earns ten points. Nine for second place, etc. This forms a regional “ Hasler League” from which the top four clubs in every league qualify to compete at the “ Hasler Finals”. The finals are therefore a national event with paddlers from all the country. The standard of racing is usually very high and each race contains 20 – 30 boats, as opposed to 3 or 4 at regional level! This year the finals were held at the National Water Sport Centre at Nottingham. The races all started and finished on the Sprint Regatta lake, the lightning’s and four milers doing two laps of the lake whilst the eight and twelve mile races portaged onto the River Trent. The sprint lake can get quite choppy so it was a relief on the day when there was very little wind. It was also overcast so no one overheated. Due to the shear numbers the racing is split into two sessions, Lightning’s and four milers in the morning, eight and twelve milers in the afternoon. Lining up for the start was entertaining as all boats had to be reversed onto a pontoon- not so good for those with the wobbles!

The first race off the day contained a hastily thrown together pairing of Margaret and Kerrian in Div. 7\8 K2. 27 boats lined up and made quite a splash when they set off! Our pair stayed upright and came home in 25^th place. Div. 7 K1 set off next with 26 entries. Andrew put on a terrific show and powered home in 8^th place, well-done sir! Sarah wasn’t far behind finishing 15^th in her first ever Hasler Final, with Paul coming home in 20^th place. The largest race of the day was Div.8 K1, where the 34 boats struggled for room on the start line. Kris finally got away from the old man to finish 31^st, with Neil 32^nd. Mark followed in 33^rd place with Pat right on his tail in 34^th spot. The Lightning race was held over a shorter circuit in the centre of the lake, and Simon competed in the under12 boy’s race. He faced some very hefty opposition and did well to gain 13^th place.

The first MADCC member in action in the afternoon was Robin in Div.3 K1. After twelve miles of hard work he secured 10^th place, good going Robin. Twenty-nine boats lined up for the start of Div 5\6 K2. The water is a little choppy when fifty-eight paddlers have all tried to sprint into the lead from the start! Our crews coped quite well and after eight miles John and Adrian gained 15^th place, well done you two. Meanwhile Neil and Simon were obviously enjoying the scenery and came home in 25^th spot, one of them needs to train more! The last yellow vest of the day to see action was Chris in Div. 5 K1. He put up a valiant fight to finally gain 19^th place in a very respectable time.

All our paddlers did the best they could and managed to gain a great result for the club, 18^th out of 31! All our paddlers remained upright this year and one or two even admitted they enjoyed the day! Many, Many thanks to those who helped make the day another success for the MADCC racing team!!