Marathon – Sep 2018

WINDSOR – RACE 10

thanks again to Naomi from LCRK:

A special event on the marathon calendar, round 10 at Windsor Canoe Club invited everyone to try portaging no matter what their division or craft. It added a fun spice and some great photo opportunities to a heated day of racing. ‘Light rain and storms developing in the late morning’ was the forecast as we arrived at Windsor on Saturday morning. With a tide ripping out for the whole race, the rain thankfully confined itself to a sprinkle, and storms too stayed away for the whole race.

Portaging is usually only confined to Div 1 at the NSW marathon series races, though it is commonplace for ICF boats at state, national and international competitions. The theory is that marathon paddling doesn’t inflict quite enough pain as is, and the best way to increase the threshold is to make competitors hop out of their boat every lap of the course, squeeze in a quick jog with their boat in tow, get back in and keep paddling as if nothing has happened! At least, that’s how easy the Div 1 paddlers make it look. For this round, paddlers were invited to try portaging as part of their regular race, with three for the 20km divisions, two over 15kms and one in the 10km course.  Successfully completing all the portages earned an extra ICF point, and so the heat was on to see whether anyone might challenge Manly for top position in the 2018 ICF trophy.

It was really great to see how many paddlers took up the portage opportunity, with skis, long recs and even some touring canoes joining the ranks on the sand. Most were even smiling! While the divisions were a little more spread-out as a result, the portage round added a fabulous spice to the marathon racing calendar, and many are keen to see it on the 2019 program.

With only two races left on the calendar, some divisions have clear leaders emerging while others are still wide open. Next up is Davistown on Saturday September 15th.

(pics from the PaddleNSW Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/123301968@N08)

 

Club Standings

after race 11 Davistown:

Only one race left to go!

 

Hawkesbury Classic

Entries are still open! Get registered, and get training. Please see: https://www.canoeclassic.net/

 

ICF Canoe Marathon World Champs

Well done to all of our athletes who had competed in the ICF Canoe Marathon World Champs in Portugal! Pictured here are our Aussie athletes who competed for the Masters World Cup.

 

 

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