Prudhoe WWR 2017
This weekend saw the Duddon Wildwater racing team competing twice over the weekend, the first race was on the river Tyne at Prudhoe. Attending the race was the current crop of male U23 GB paddlers and female U23 and U18 GB paddlers and the current British male WWR champion to inspire all the young paddlers from Duddon to test their skills against some of the best the country has to offer.
Water levels were low but there was a route down the river without any scraping, the juniors were off first and all of them negotiated the course well without any mishaps. Kieran Noonan & Conner Bentley both raced in wild water racing boats and negotiated the course well on both runs
Brandon was next and he set off well but was pushed off line by the moving water half way down the course and this cost him a lot of time however he had a second run to make amends.
Wilson Juniors second run went better than his first however he couldn’t handle the pressure put on him by the sublime Wilson senior
Next up was Duddons super duper top WWR paddler Scott (the blur) Wilson who was determined to put the young upstart Brandon back in his place. Wilson senior had a good start and a tight turn around the buoy saw him in a perfect position to go down the main feature on the river. This he negotiated perfectly and only a slight mistake at the end of the run where he was pushed out of the main flow spoiled an otherwise perfect run.
Wilson seniors second run (if you can believe it)was even better than his first! he picked the same perfect line all the way down the river and stayed in the fast flowing water all the way over the line and beat his first run by 4 second, however he was magnanimous in victory and never gloated or mentioned it again that night in the Chinese restaurant, he did all his talking on the river.
When the results came in Wilson senior finished 4th only beaten by the current Wildwater racing British champion and 2 Under 23 internationals Wilson junior finished down in a lowly 6th place.
In the girls race saw Victoria Longstaff and Michelle Sanderson take on paddlers from Nottingham and Tyne Valley canoe clubs, Longstaff put in 2 very consistent runs with her first being the fastest and she finished 1st under 16 girl in 4th place overall. Sanderson raced in a general purpose boat, she got the fastest time for paddlers in a GP boat and narrowly missed beating one of the WWR boats by a couple of seconds. Time for a step up to a Wildwater racer I think Michelle!
The C1 category saw Emily and Andy Longstaff competing in a reduced field, but the main question would be who would have bragging rights in the Longstaff household after the race, Both paddlers put in 2 good runs without any mishaps and then they just had to wait for the results to see who the top C1 paddlers would be, when the dust had settled it was Andy by 8 seconds, Emily will have to get her revenge in the first summer series race to be held on the 14th May.
Scott Wilson.
Results were;
Male K1 under 8, first place Ryan Bentley - time 3:44
Male K1 under 12, 1st place Daniel Noonan - time 3:44
Male K1 under 14, 1st place Kieran Noonan -time 3:11
Male K1 under 18, 1st place Brandon Wilson -time 2:47
Male K1 Open, 4th place Scott Wilson -time 2:31
Male C1 Andy Longstaff -time 3:52
Female K1 under 16, 1st place Victoria Longstaff -time 2:56 and 4th overall
Female K1 9th place overall - time 3:49
Female C1 3rd overall Emily Longstaff -time 3:57
