Talent and Performance News November 2014

In this month’s talent and performance news we report on Jake Cochrane’s excellent performance in the Canoe Slalom British Open where he followed his runner up spot in the last Division 1 Race of the season at HPP Nottingham at the end of October with a very creditable final placing of 25th in the B Finals at Lee Valley, see report below. In surf the NI Open was staged on the 8th November with tremendous results recorded by both our junior development and AIP athletes, see report and results below. This month we also congratulate European Ladies Surf Champion Meabh Lynch on her achievement of securing a Mary Peter’s Trust bursary award which will help her preparation towards the 2015 World Surf Championships in Spain and we wish Corin King and Chris Hobson success in the rescheduled British Open Surf Championships which will be held on 29th and 30th November in Wales. Hannah Craig is continuing her return to full time training and this month travels to Dubai for the first of two 4 week training camps planned over the winter months, she hopes to make a return to competitive action in early March and finally all our junior development and talent athletes are engaged in winter ergo training programmes which will run until late March.

Cochrane finishes 25th in the B Finals at Canoe Slalom British Open

The following report was provided by Jake after the event;

The British Open started for me with a training camp in Nottingham the week leading up to the Open, led by Matt McKnight. It was a positive few days training with a lot of good paddling. On Friday Matt and I headed down to London for a session on Lee Valley, which was my last session before the race. It was a good session to have before the race but getting used to the bigger white water in just one session was pretty tricky as it is deemed one of the hardest courses in the world, if not the hardest. Come the first day of racing there was a great atmosphere around the site as there was a huge crowd of international paddlers that had come over for the race, nearly the same amount of international guys as there were British! My two runs on the Saturday were decent enough with the second being a better run than the first, however I didn’t place very well and ended up sitting close to the bottom after Saturday’s qualifications. Sunday morning started pretty early with the first semi-final runs going off at 8.30am. I had my semi-final run just after this, which didn’t go to plan after picking up three 50s and just didn’t feel on form. This meant that my second run of the day would be in Final B. After a good review of my first run with Matt, I went into my warm up with a much more positive mind than I had after my first run. My second run turned out to be a very good run, much improved on the first run. However I did pick up 3 touches adding 6 seconds onto my run time. I finished up 25th in Final B which placed me 35th overall. I was really pleased with the racing on a whole and feel that I have gained a lot of experience from racing at such a big event and venue. This was the last race of the season so I am now going into winter training ahead of Irish selection in March.

Jake Cochrane in action at the British Open

Season Finale at NI Surf Open

The following report was provided by event organiser James O’Donnell;

“This was a fantastic event for all our members involved in surf kayaking and waveski, and great to see the enormous progress being made by the development squad. Keep it up!
We wrapped up the 2014 Ulster surf & ski league on Saturday the 8th November with the NI Open in Portrush. After a chilly start to the day, the comp really started to warm up with some great paddling on display at Whiterocks beach with perfect conditions and good waves.
I haven’t seen the men’s IC so hotly contested in a long time with some of the big names in surf kayaking on display. Showing us why they are current and ex world champions.
The juniors from the development squad are a joy to watch as they always give 100% and as can be seen from the results are getting into the final positions even in the men’s heats!
Big thanks to all who came to compete and to everyone who helped to organise the event.
Thanks again to Shambles for judging and to Ivan of River Lake and Sea Coleraine for sponsoring prizes for the contestants.

Results - NI Surf Open 2014