The 73rd Devizes to Westminster International Canoe Race is due to start this weekend and with fast river conditions and some exciting crews entered, it looks to be a thrilling edition to follow. Could the long standing senior doubles record be broken?
To follow all the action throughout, visit the following links below:
For further details on how to spectator appropriately, visit the DW Organisation Website here.
Good luck to all taking part this year!
Entries are now open for the 2023 edition of Short Course Nationals. Spots are limited so get your entries in quickly by visiting our entries page here.
Based on athlete feedback, the Marathon Racing Committee are excited to announce the addition of a Division 1 K2 to a select few Hasler Races. In recent years, there has been no provision for Division 1 standard K2’s to race on a regular basis due to lack of engagement from paddlers historically. This addition will allow Division 1 ranked paddlers, as well as Division 2 ranked paddlers, to race K2’s outside of assessment and selection. This could be with a potential selection-worthy boat, supporting younger juniors to race up or to race mixed boats.
The following races have agreed to host a Division 1 K2 race during the 2023 season:
These events have been selected due to timing’s in the racing calendar, location in reference to current Division 1 paddlers and course specifics that will allow for good racing.
The MRC would strongly encourage Division 1 and Division 2 paddlers to engage with this provision.
For more details on how Division 1 K2 will work at the above Hasler’s, visit our race organisers information document below.
Short Course Nationals is back for a second year! Come join us at Nene Park, Peterborough for a fun and exciting day of racing on Sunday 7th May.
More details to follow in the coming months!
Are you wanting to try something different this year? Check out our below list on some of the non-Hasler races happening nationally this year! This is not an exhaustive list but should give you a flavour of what is on offer.
Most race details can be found via our entries page here or our racing calendar here.
EDIT: Worcester Ring Challenge typically takes place is a 21 mile loop race taking place in July.
Check the Prohibited List 
– Not knowing is not enough.
The 2023 Prohibited List is available to read now and comes into effect on 1 January. Read about the Prohibited List over on UK Anti-Doping‘s website below.
In a new endeavour for the 2022 season and onwards, the Marathon Racing Committee has been working closely with the Devizes to Westminster International Canoe Race Organisation to support and continue to facilitate school racing and development opportunities.
Reinstated as an annual event in 2013, the National School Canoe Championship’s objective is to encourage grassroots paddling, and better preparation and development of school teams in paddlesport. It has been well entered ever since by a range of schools, including Kimbolton School, Bryanston School, Lord Wandsworth College and Heathside School.
In 2022, the criteria for entry was reviewed with a focus on schools playing an active part and commitment to supporting paddlesport within their schools. All schools are required to demonstrate paddlesport is part of their co-curriculum/sport offering. We therefore had eight different schools entering crews for a busy day of racing at Hawley Lake on Sunday 20th November.
The morning involved a series of “500m” and “200m” sprint races for both the Senior and Novice categories. In the Senior 500m final, Jago Taylor and Dominic Walker (Norwich School) finished first ahead of Jack Ockenden and Charlie Fane from Bryanston School. In the Novice 500m final, Oscar Brownfield and Ted Umbers just pipped Charlie East and Dan Corfield (both from Lord Wandsworth College) by a matter of miliseconds.
The 200m event takes the format of a knockout, where crews are eliminated in groups until the last remained five boats go head to head in the final. In the Senior race, Jago Taylor and Dominic Walker (Norwich School) again took the win after a tough fight against Imogen Hunter and Theo Sales from Hills Road Sixth Form College. In the Novice category, Freddie Cullen and Oliver Groslin (Lord Wandsworth College) won by over five seconds.
After lunch, the crews took to the water to compete in the marathon event. The senior category completed five laps of the lake with four portages, whereas the novice category completed four laps with three portages. After the start, the senior race broke down to a lead group of three crews: Jago Taylor/Dominic Walker (Norwich School), Imogen Hunter/Theo Sales (Hills Road Sixth Form College) and Jack Ockenden/Charlie Fane (Bryanston School). After a couple of laps, Jago and Dominic made a break to take the win just over a minute ahead of Imogen and Theo in second.
In the Novice race, a dominate performance from Charlie Simon and Tom Shepherd (Lord Wandsworth College) saw them lead the race off the start and complete the course by the themselves to take the win. Isabel Davis and Alex Gherabi (Kimbolton School) took the ladies novice win.
It was really positive to see, in both the senior and novice categories, that most crews were finishing within a ten minute window after the winner of the race. Close racing was the theme of the day throughout and crews were able to race hard no matter their position in the field.
Overall, Kimbolton School took the win in the Senior Team Trophy and Lord Wandsworth College took the Novice Team Trophy.
After taking the win, Jon Sweet, Kimbolton School team leader, said, “We always enjoy coming to this event. It’s a great introduction to racing for our new paddlers as well as giving the more experienced ones something to aim for. We are very happy to have retained the team trophy and are looking forward to [the 2023 season].”
The Kimbolton Canoeing Captain, Noah, also said, “Despite an especially competitive year, strong performances throughout helped the team prevail, winning the team marathon event for the second year running, after having not won it since 1999. We hope to continue this good form going into our Waterside series of races and… [Devizes to Westminster]… next year.”
Next years National School Canoe Championships will take place at Hawley Lake on Sunday 19th November 2023.
The MRC are excited to publish the current details for the 2023 season.
We are still looking for a host/venue for Hasler Finals 2023 – if you have not hosted a marathon major event or haven’t hosted in the last two years, please consider and get in touch, even if it’s just with a few questions on the commitment levels and requirements! Contact Dan Seaford, our major events lead, here.
The Great Britain Masters team had 32 Paddlers competing in the Masters World Cup in Portugal in September. This was a huge increase in the 4 who competed in the Masters World Cup 2021 held in Romania and the European Cup held in Denmark back in July.
The team that headed out to Portugal had a hard act to follow after the 2021 team won a gold and a silver medal and the recent European Cup team all managed to get onto the podium in their respective age group races. These set the scene for Portugal, with our team’s reputation running high.
The masters events always start with the single boats racing on Monday and Brian Greenway paved the way by showing that his many years of racing still counts as he took the Gold medal in the Men’s K1 70+ race.
Following on, we had paddlers in most of the other age group races with many of our paddlers competing in their first World Masters. Unlike 2021, the fields were huge, often using more than the start pontoon’s 20 places. The men’s team earned many top 10 places, including Edgar Boehm getting a 9th place in a highly competitive over 45 K1 men’s race and Robert Scholes and Antony Nolan achieved 5th and 6th respectively in the over 75 K1 men’s race.
The women’s team were not to be outdone and showed how this team has grown in size and confidence. Jane Millar took 4th in the over 65 women’s K1 and Sue Hawthorn earned 5th in the over 55 women’s K1.
Tuesday was the turn of the double crew boats and the British medals continued to come. Our over 75 Men’s K2 team of Keith Durham and Paul Newman won an unopposed Gold. Not to be outdone, Brian Greenway dropped down an age-group to paddle into a medal winning position with Simon Davies. The Kristin Queeney and Catherine Ayling completed a bronze medal winning performance in the over 55 women K2.
To conclude the programme of events, some of our paddlers took to the water for their 3rd race in 2 days to compete in the mixed K2. Unlike in previous years, the mixed K2 was merged into only 2 age-group based races. In the over 50 mixed K2, Chris Sze and Catherine Ayling achieved 10th with Micheal Hawthorn and Sue Hawthorn finishing close behind in 11th. It is worth noting that if the mixed K2 had be seperated out into the previous age categories like at last years world cup, Chris Sze and Catherine Ayling would have had 3rd place in the over 55 and Bryn Price and Jane Millar would have had a 2nd place in the over 65.
Thank to Bryn Price for his support creating this write-up.
To review, reflect and build on the successes of the 2022 Major Events Season, the MRC Major Events team is seeking feedback from the community of paddlers, coaches and clubs to allow us to make our events even better for the future.
Please fill out the following form for any of the major events you attended this year. If you did not attend one or two of the major events detailed, please skip onto the next section.
