Sprint & Marathon
Fresh from their success at the CANI and Canoe Sprint Ireland National Sprint Regatta at Castlewellan in July, brother and sister athletes, Luke and Afton Fitzhenry, accompanied by fellow Belfast Canoe Club member Craig Wilson, travelled to Nottingham on 7th & 8th September for the last Sprint Regatta of the season. This was the first time the three members of the CANI racing development squad, accompanied by their coach Malcolm Kerry, who also competed in the Masters class, have travelled across the water to be part of such a major event. Also making the trip were father and son paddlers Gerry and Darragh Murphy, from Erne Paddlers, who had also both done well at Castlewellan recently, with Gerry also enjoying major success at the WPFG event there.
All entrants had a great experience, valuable and encouraging on many levels. Not only did they all progress to at least 1 final in their respective classes, but clocked some very good times, and gave themselves a huge boost to help keep up the training as they go into the winter months. Well done to them all.
Notes on their trip can be read on CANI Facebook page
Surf
The surf squad have enjoyed the summer months to the full, meeting regularly for single days of training at the weekends – this format seems to have suited everyone better than the full weekends, making travelling up to the coast an easier experience. The progress has been great, and a good number of the squad participated in the NISKC League competition at Magheraroarty at the end of August. They performed well, and enjoyed the fun of competing alongside other surf competitors.
Many of them are also looking forward now to taking their places alongside some of the top surf kayakers and waveski athletes from at home and across the other Home Countries who will be gathering in Northern Ireland for the British Open on 14th & 15th September. We wish them all the very best, and will post full reports of the youngsters progress as well as news of our top surf athletes
Slalom
Our World Class Slalom Athletes, Hannah Craig and Ciaran Heurteau begin their most major competition of the season this week. They have been training and competing exceptionally hard all season, travelling throughout Europe, at training camps in Prague, Krakow and Augsburg, and competition venues in Cardiff and France. They have had a very constructive World Cup series, which will have hopefully prepared them well for the challenges to come. We wish them the very best, and hope to be able to let you know how they have got on very soon.
Matt McKnight, coach of the Slalom Junior Development squad, and member of the U23 Irish Squad, is also competing, and it would be brilliant to see him do well too!
The next dates for the development squads are as follows:
Slalom squad – 21/22 Sept, 12/13 Oct, 16/17 Nov, 30/1 Dec
Surf squad – 28 Sept @ Portrush, 2/3 Nov @ Donegal (weekend residential training camp), 30 Nov @ Portrush
The Sprint/Marathon squad meets regularly too, but a full list of dates has not yet been finalised. Please get in touch for more details.
Any performance queries contact performance@cani.org.uk