The Sharks Sprint team is starting to make waves
At the recent National Sprint Regatta at Holme Peirrepont in Nottingham, Shark paddlers were on top form, with Adam Stewart leading the way,
In the Boys’ D 200m he took the lead from the start and finished a staggering four and a half seconds in front of his nearest rival in the heats, with a personal best time of 54.15 seconds, but there was more to come when he won the final by over a boat length and taking another two seconds of his personal best!
On Sunday Adam took second place in the 500m race with another personal best time of 2:33.07 to earn himself promotion to Boys C
Grant Underwood was racing for the first time in Men’s C, having stormed the April Regatta, although he had a disappointing start taking 7th place in the K1, 1,000m final in a time of 5:17.15. In his 200m race he achieved a personal best of 49.26 taking fifth place in a very tight finish.
But the best was still to come on Sunday, when like club mate Adam he came in second in the final in another PB of 2:18.35. Close but not quite close enough for promotion to Men’s B, but with performances like this it is only a matter of time!
Amelia Combes, was racing in only her second national regatta and racing against much older competition the thirteen-year-old showed great character and a name to look out for, she has already gained promotion to National Division 2 in slalom. Her time in the Girl’s D 200m was 1:24.40.
Club Coach Beata Fabińska, was very pleased with the performances, saying: ” these results are fantastic and are the rewards of the work the paddlers have put, I am so proud of them! The Club is developing very fast and we now have a number of new paddlers coming through. Using the outdoo pool at Hillingdon Leisure Centre has enabled us to attract a lot of new talent and we have twenty or thirty new paddlers who could soon be racing for us. I am very confident that we will have a lot more to celebrate in the near future.”
Neal Underwood, Club Manager, who also raced Men’s over 54 200m in a time of 1:05.23, went on to add: “The Club has invested heavily in our ambition to be one of the greatest clubs in Britain; Beata has transformed what we do and how we do it. She spoke about the Pool in Uxbridge, both Hillingdon and Ealing Councils have been very supportive of what we are trying to achieve. Access to Hillingdon Leisure Centre has been fantastic, we have attracted loads of local youngsters, who are having fun, learning new skills, keeping fit and will soon be racing for us. The partnership between the Leisure Centre, Council and us has proved to be a fantastic success for everybody, something local people can be proud of.”
The Club hold sessions at Hillingdon Leisure Centre, Uxbridge on Tuesday evenings, for more information contact Neal on 0951 770241, email: canoeing@thesharks.org.uk. Sessions are also available at Harefield (Monday evening), Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday in Southall.