From the Hillingdon Gazette – March 16th 2016

Great Britain hopeful Grant Underwood picked up a ninth place at the Scottish Open Wild Water Racing Championships.

The Harefield Sharks paddler, and his team, travelled up to The River Tay at Grandtully, North Perthshire, which will host the 2016 British team selection event in April.

Saturday’s sprint race saw Underwood pull up in his first run after just 10 metres, but managed to gain seventh place with his second run (the best of two runs counts) in a time of 56 seconds. Rod Grundy, one of the club’s coaches, came in 22nd in a time of 1min 8secs and James Reed was two seconds behind in 23rd place. In Sunday’s classic race of 3.5K, Grant slipped to ninth place on a time of 14inins 13.5secs. Grundy picked up a few places to come in 19th, while Reed maintained his 23rd spot.

Club coach Neal Underwood said: “The River Tay offers a wild water experience similar to rivers on continental Europe, so it is important for the club to learn about the river. Grant has picked up some valuable experience which hopefully will help him in the selection event later this year. “As a club, we do well in WWR and we have a few youngsters who could break into the junior team in the next couple of years, but want more people to join us and take up this exciting sport and enjoy the fun.”

For more information about The Sharks, visit www.thesharks.org.uk, email canoeing@thesharks.org.uk or call Neal on 07951 770 241. You do not need any experience or equipment as the club will provide all the kit at whatever level you are.