A small team of Shark paddlers travelled to Grandtully in the middle of Scotland to take part in the Scottish Open Wild Water racing championships and to take advantage of the chance to train with British Team coaches.

Two days of coaching on the  Thursday and Friday, with the sprint event on the Saturday and the Classic on the Sunday. The Shark paddlers taking part were Grant Underwood, James Reed and Rod Grundy.

Despite the time of year, the conditions were good, with sun shining on the snowy mountains, two days of excellent training and some great racing, with over 50 people taking part it was probably the biggest racing in Britain for many years. Well done to Scottish canoeing for the revival of the sport north of the boarder.

Grant Underwood took 7th place in the Men’s Open Sprint K1 race, with Rod 22nd and James 23rd on Saturday. Sunday’s Classic race, grant slipped to 9th place with Rod coming in 19th and James Reed 23rd.

As well as The Sharks being represented at the Scottish Open National race, the event provided a great opportunity to gain experience and learn the course which will be used for selecting the Great Britain team for 2016. The selection event will take place in April an The Sharks are hoping to have several paddlers there to gain some experience for the future as well as hoping some Sharks will make the team this year.

Grandtully provides a course not dissimilar to many European rivers, so it is good practice for European competitions as well as for selection. In order to develop our Wild Water Race team The Sharks will be looking at spending some time up there over Easter. If you are interested in Wild Water Racing, please contact Neal on 07951 770241 or email: canoeing@thesharks.org.uk.

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