Petersen gets the perfect warm-up

Banbury & District Canoe Club followed up their fourth place at last week’s Basingstoke race by going one better at Reading at the weekend.
Joe Peterson makes a good start in his division one race. Photo: Sharon GallagherJoe Peterson makes a good start in his division one race. Photo: Sharon Gallagher
Joe Peterson makes a good start in his division one race. Photo: Sharon Gallagher

The venue provided its usual competitive and challenging races, with some big fields, choppy water conditions, and two very different portages.

There were strong wins for Joe Petersen – a good warm up before he travels out to Norway for the Marathon World Cup this weekend – as well as newcomer James Boggis in division nine K1 and Colette Johnson with Rory Cronin in division eight K2.

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Two of the club’s wild water paddlers Rob Jefferies and George Urquhart, switched boats for the weekend to take second in division two K2 while the veteran pair of Robin Avery and Jerry Haycock took the same position in division three K2.

Will Larner, in his first eight-mile race, made nothing of the extra distance and portages to come second in division six K1 and will no doubt be promoted straight up again.

Chris Petersen and Simon Petersen put in their usual strong race for third place in division seven K2, while Phoebe Battison – another paddler new to racing this year – took third in division nine K1.

As ever, there were a few hard luck stories but few would beat George Melbourne, who was attacked by a goose and had a swim, or Harry Critchfield, who was looking to win division four until his rudder broke at the portage.

But both boys showed great resilience and character to go on and finish their races.