The Sharks invested heavily in Sprint in 2015 and hoped for more participation and although we did not see a huge rise in the numbers taking part in Sprint racing; the foundations have been prepared and hopefully we will see some new talent coming through soon.

The appointment of a specialist Sprint coach; Beata Fabińska; was a brave and forward looking action for the Club to take and showed the Club’s commitment to this discipline. Her knowledge and experience is of great value to the Club and has helped move our ambition to become a top sprint club forward.

Although we did not get many new paddlers this year at National Regattas; we did see great improvements in our existing paddlers, with  Adam Stewart being promoted to Boys C and establishing his position there very well. He now has the big challenge in 2016 of racing in Men’s divisions. Adam is now studying at Birmingham City University and that makes training harder; but The Sharks are fully committed to supporting athletes whilst away from home. Adam is a GLL supported athlete.

Grant Underwood was promoted to Men’s C and was towards the end of the season challenging for promotion to Men’s B, an aspiration for the early part of 2016. Grant is now at Loughborough University and will continue to be supported by The Sharks but will race for Loughborough University in 2016 as part of a sponsorship deal. Grant is a GLL supported athlete.

Other paddlers that raced for The Sharks at National Events included: Amelia Combes in Girl’s D at 13-years-old our youngest paddler at the National Sprint Regattas. Amelia is a GLL supported athlete.

Ali Judge also made an appearance in Women’s D, and Neal Underwood raced in the National Masters Championship and is ranked in Masters D.

Catherine Robinson also raced in National Paddleability; using one of our two boats specially purchased to enable people with disabilities to take part in sprint racing. Although Catherine is a Shark member she races for Bishops Stortford in sprint racing

The Sharks also attended a regional sprint regatta at Marlow: Johan Kukkohovi, becoming our youngest ever sprint racer at just 9-years old, and doing very well against much older opposition. Lianna Nolan pickied up a medal in the girl’s division D race as did Amelia Combes.  Adam Stewart won the Boy’s C and Grant Underwood won the Men’s C. Races were over 200m and 3,000m.

The Sharks would like to thank those people who have helped manage our sprint paddlers this year: Beata Fabińska, Mandy Combes, Angie Stewart and Neal Underwood; and look forward to seeing more people racing in Shark colours in 2016.