THE OUTRIGGER Whitsunday Club has just returned from the Australian Outrigger National Marathon Championships, held at Mooloolaba over the weekend May 24, 25 and 26.
There is no rest, however, as the club prepares to go back on the road again, this time to Townsville.
The Coral Sea club is hosting a day of sprint racing and the Townsville club is hosting its annual Magnetic Island Changeover event.
Outrigger Whitsunday has been focusing on the 500m sprint distance for the last month and hope to get all members racing well in the OC6, OC2 and OC1 divisions.
They also have one crew of 12 paddlers taking part in the Sunday racing.
At National Titles, racing conditions were favourable for teammates Terry Kemp and Tony McNeil in the OC1/OC2 10km short course.
With 100 paddlers on the water, wave starts were necessary to get all canoes on the start line and safely out to the first-turn buoy.
The boys had an excellent start and while they did not medal this time, their 14th place overall was truly outstanding.
Carnage is the only word to describe the start line of Saturday’s 10km short course – 46 OC6 canoes required a 2-wave start, 5 minutes apart.
In the 2nd wave, Outrigger Whitsunday and Townsville found themselves drifting closer to one another, pushed along by canoes from the right.
Crews rely on the steerer to look after their crew and also get them into a good starting position, so it only takes one steerer to mess it all up.
Both Outrigger Whitsunday and Townsville had strong crews in the mixed division, however, that one steerer forced canoes to compact and the Townsville crew hulied amongst it all.
With no choice but to stop paddling and wait for the path to clear, the Whitsunday crew began to chase down the field in front.
Expert steerer Peter Chamberlain got as much as he could from the canoe and crew, everyone focused on overtaking other canoes, 20 in all taking the crew over the finish line in 23rd place overall out of the 46 starters; 6th in their division, just 3 ½ minutes from a 3rd place medal.
Blue skies and light winds greeted all competitors for the final day of racing, the 18km course being held in open ocean.
The crew felt strong and confident throughout the course with Peter Chamberlain guiding the canoe along the swell to each turn buoy.
The crew finished in 1 hour 53 minutes, the front runners too strong in water they train in regularly.
To finish the day, Terry Kemp, Tony McNeil and Stephen Lynes combined with 3 paddlers from other clubs for the Golden Master 10km short course missing out on 3rd place by just over 1 minute.
Contributed.
