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The first British regatta of the season was held at the National Watersports Centre in Nottingham. Paracanoeists were fighting for places in the team for the 2018 ECA Paracanoeing European Championships. Experienced paddlers who already had much success at international events, such as Paralympic Games, World and European Paracanoeing European Championships were among the best now as well.

 

In men’s KL3 event 2017 European Championships silver medallist Rob Oliver and 2017 World Championships bronze medallist Jonny Young finished the races at the top positions. "I am feeling really confident after the races. There was some really competitive racing today. I have done a lot of miles during the winter training months and it is really paying off.  I feel the fittest I have in years, it is just about getting that extra sharpness in from racing,” said Rob Oliver after the race. In men’s KL1 200 metres event Rio 2016 bronze medallist Nick Beighton recorded two wins.

 

There was exciting racing in women’s paracanoeing events too. Emma Wiggs won the women’s KL2 events, but she had to work hard to finish the races about half a second ahead of Charlotte Henshaw, another medallist of the 2017 ECA Paracanoeing European Championships. Jeanette Chippington, who like Emma Wiggs, secured herself a Paracanoeing Grand Slam last year, won the KL3 events.

 

Paracanoeists took on the Va’a challenge as well on Sunday. Former wheelchair tennis athlete David Phillipson took round one in the V1 getting ahead of Martin Tweedie who took second place during round one. Round two finished differently, with recent Talent ID recruit and current Mr England Jack Eyers putting in a blistering performance to win round two, beating Martin Tweedie who again occupied second spot.

In the women's Va’a it was two Grand Slam Champions coming up against each other with Emma Wiggs taking on Jeanette Chippington. It was Emma who secured wins in both rounds of racing.

 

There were other selection races held in Nottingham as well this weekend, including the crew boat selection finals. In the K4 Men’s U23 and Senior Open 500m final there were numerous competitive boats out on the start line, including the crew boat nomination of Liam Heath, Jon Schofield, Lewis Fletcher and Matt Robinson. They were closely followed in second place by the U23 crew boat nomination of Noah Dembele, Ieuan James, Stelian Naftanaila and Trevor Thomson, who only finished under a second behind the race leaders.

 

Meanwhile, the K4 Girls U16/18 and Women’s U23 and Senior Open 500m Selection Race final saw the senior crew of Hannah Brown, Deborah Kerr, Emily Lewis and Amy Turner putting in a dominating performance of 1:41.10. Only two seconds off the pace were the U23 crew of Ava Dale, Sam Rees-Clark, Renee Myburgh and Lucy Lee-Smith.

 

Away from selection races, athletes took the chance to get some competitive racing in as they gear up to selection event on the 28 April.

 

Germany too had a weekend full of qualifying races, also for paracanoeists. They competed in Va’s as well, although there were some uncertainties because of the new classification rules for Va’a. For this reason most of the paracanoeists were ranked higher in class. Nevertheless, the favourites of the competition dominated the events. Ivo Killian won in men’s V3 event, and Edina Müller also competed both in kayak and Va’a boat. The second selection event will be held in Kienbaum on 5^th May and after that upon the proposal of coaching council the names of proposed athletes will be (or not) confirmed for their participation at international events.

 

The first major paracanoeing international event of the year 2018 will be World Cup race in Szeged, Hungary.