Henley Hasler 16th September 2018

Just one week following the Pangbourne Hasler we were off to Henley for another race. Once again, we were lucky with the weather, just enough sunshine to top up the tan but it was a little windy on the Henley straight giving some challenging conditions. I felt that I was paddling at sea some of the time and in Division five K1 and with twenty-seven boats on the start line wash was horrendous.
Henley is yet another beautiful stretch of The Thames for a race and Henley Canoe Club organised an excellent event. Our thanks to all at Henley for this.
In 3K1 Simon TC paddled a gruelling 12 miles to get a good division three race under his belt. Well done Si! Stuart Q elected to paddle in 4K1 (he could have done 5K1) coming 4th scoring 19 points. This is only his second race after a gap of many years so a good result. Greg W, also paddling for the first time after a long break, flew round the course in 5K1 coming third, gaining another 19 points and promotion to division four. Gavin L and Steve M came 14th and 18th respectively in 5K1. I had a poor start but an exciting finish sprinting to the line and holding off a FOX paddler by only one second. In 9K1 Chris R coped well with the windy conditions to come in 10th. Well done Chris.
In the doubles races Peter W paddling 5K2 with his daughter Eleanor (ex-Pangbourne, now with the RAF) had an exciting race with four boats coming into the finish neck and neck: they finished 4th only one second behind 3rd place. Fay B and Caroline W came 11th in 5K2, both glad to be in a stable boat. Robin T and Tommy F shot off the start line like the star ship Enterprise leading 4K2 up to the portage but eventually being pushed into 4th place. Well raced against strong competition. Conor M paddling 3K2 with a Reading partner had a comfortable win coming in more than a minute ahead of the second crew, a large margin at this level, so a good race there.
Once again, our juniors did us proud with Jensen M coming 2nd in U12Males and Amy G 1st in U12females. More significant for Amy was that she was 6th out of all the junior competitors after only a handful of races, so well done to both of our juniors.
The next Hasler Race is Banbury on Sunday 28th October. It would be good to get out a strong team to see if we can get into this years’ Hasler Final.
Steve