British Open Surf Championships
The British Open was held on the weekend, 12th – 13th October in Manorbier, South Wales. High Performance Athletes, Marty McCann, Chris Hobson, Corin and Jake King as well as entrants for the Master Class, and a significant number of our Junior Surf Development Squad, travelled across the water for the competition.
Mathew Lamont secured 1st place in junior IC and 2nd place in junior HP. Jamie Gamble gained 3rd place in Junior IC, Emil Lazarescu 5th place in Junior HP and IC, Meabh Lynch 4th place Ladies HP, Andrew and Sofia were the only two juniors competing in the Open Waveski and were highly commended for their performances. Marty McCann finished 3rd in the Open Waveski and Ashley Hunter was 4th in the Masters HP. Unfortunately the men’s open HP and IC were not run due to a poor surf forecast, and have been rescheduled for later in the year. It was a great weekend and shows the tremendous strides that the junior surf squad members are making, finally a big thanks to all the organisers. The junior surf development will continue to train throughout the winter months with monthly coached sessions planned for Portrush under the tutelage of head coach Marty McCann.
Representatives from CANI who competed at the British Open Surf Championships
Slalom News
Irish Selections Junior and U23 World Championships
Slalom talent athlete Ali McCreery has provided the following report from the selection races that were held on the weekend 24th – 25th October in Nottingham;
“Several members of the squad travelled to Holme Pierrepont, Nottingham for the prem/div 1 double. Saturday’s race would also be used as Irish Junior and under 23 selection for the world championships. Jake, Elliott, Kirsten and I all raced on the Saturday and were joined by Patrick on the Sunday. The course on Saturday was a tricky one, with several key moves which needed to be made. At the same time as being technical the course was also a long and physically demanding one, with 23 gates, and the quickest time of the day being 112 seconds. There was some good paddling in all our runs, but some areas of our paddling were also highlighted as not being where they need to be. There will be a good opportunity to work on these areas during the camp following the race. The results on Saturday saw Elliot finishing 35th, Jake finishing 19th, Kirsten finishing 41st and myself finishing 49th. These results set a good bench mark going into next season.
A division one race followed on the Sunday on a slightly easier course, however it was still highly competitive. The performances from all paddlers showed similar things as Saturday’s race, that there are still things which need to be worked on. However we are definitely moving in the right direction, everyone is becoming faster with every race and moving up in the results tables. The day finished with Jake in 2nd, Kirsten in 36th, Patrick 70th and myself in 12th. These all show improvements from earlier in the year. If we look back to the division 1 Grandtully race in April, I finished 24th, Jake finished 11th, Patrick finished 76th and Kirsten was not racing in division 1. The aim is to keep up these improvements over the coming winter months and begin racing again next season. Jake and Elliott have one more race this season on the Olympic course in London then it is into a hard winter of training and preparation for all of us”.
British Open Slalom Championships
CANI AIP athletes Elliott Davidson and Eoin Teague along with Talent squad member Jake Cochrane will compete in the British Open Slalom Championships at Lee Valley on 1st and 2nd November. This event has attracted world class paddlers from all over the world and is restricted to premier division athletes. It is hoped that the preparation that the CANI athletes had in terms of their talent camps in Lee Valley and Nottingham will stand them in good stead and we wish them every success during the competition. Eoin Teague secured his premier division status earlier this month by winning two division one races in Llandysul while division one paddler Jake Cochrane, who has relocated to Nottingham in order to train fulltime at HPP has gained entry to the British Open as a guest.
Slalom Development and Talent Squads.
At the end of last month a number of the CANI talent squad travelled to HPP, Nottingham as part of the Paul McConkey Memorial weekend. In the division 1 race, Eoin Teague came first and Ali McCreery came 8th in Men’s K1 and Jake Cochrane came 4th in the Men’s C1. The weekend was fully booked with competitors and this was a great result for NI slalom. Over the same weekend Patrick Creber gained promotion to division 1 with a win in the division 2 race at West Tanfield. This is a great achievement for Patrick and is fully earned with his commitment to the summer coaching programme paying dividends.
Over half term members of the development and talent squads will travel to Nottingham for a three day training camp at HPP. The camp will be coached by head coach Matt McKnight and double sessions will be conducted on all three days. On their return the squad will continue to engage in monthly coached weekend sessions and also commence an indoor ergo programme which will run throughout the winter months.
