Last Friday, myself and 10 other U15 paddlers met at Elmbridge Canoe club to set off to this year's Gent Regatta in Belgium. We arrived in Gent on Friday afternoon, and the wind was fairly strong. This was not enough to put us off however, and we were soon on the water testing our crew boats, as well paddling our K1s. By this time many of us were tired and hungry, so we drove over to the hotel where we were staying. After a few room changes and broken keys, we soon settled into our rooms and headed over to the restaurant for a nice dinner.
The next morning (although a few of us had forgotten to set our alarms to Belgian time), we had a good breakfast and travelled over to the racecourse , in time for the boys' first race - the K1 1000m heats. 5 of them made it through to the Semi-final, and Marton, Matt, Guy and Albert made it through to the final later in the day. Their next race was the K2 heats, again there was another fantastic result with all 3 crews making the final. But before the finals of the K1s and K2s, they had the K4. This was a straight final, but the British crew won second place, just behind the strong Neerpelt boat. Next was their K2 final, all the crews raced really well again - with a silver for Marton and Matt, 4th position for Peter and Albert, and not far behind was Charlie and Guy in 8th. Shortly after was the K1 1000m final. It was a hard fought race, and Marton ended up with a bronze, although was very close to silver. The other three raced really well and finished 4th, 5th and 6th.
The final two races of the day were the 5ks. For the boys this was the last race of a very long day, for the girls on the other hand, it was our first race of the weekend! The boys' race was very close - less than two seconds between the first boat and the 11th! After a tiring day, the 5k was no doubt very hard but they pulled through and ended up with: 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th and 11th. The girls, however were far less exhausted, instead we were dying to get out and race. When the start eventually came, and the familiar "start within ten seconds" was announced, one British paddler was shocked by the loud starting gun and capsized. However, Rebeka and Amy stormed the race coming 1st and 2nd, and Isobel and Naomi also did brilliantly in 4th and 5th place. After recovering from my swim, I finished the race in 11th place - not a brilliant result, but I wasn't too upset.
On Sunday it was a busy day for all of us. The racing started early again, with the boys' K1 500m, with 4 of them making it into the semi-final. The girls had their K1 500m shortly after. There were two heats, with the first 4 going through into the final. All 5 of us made it into the final - making it nearly an all British race! Directly after was the boys' semi-final. These were two really quick races, and all four raced well, however the competition was strong and only Marton made it through into the final.
Unlike Nottingham, in Gent there is a lunch-break of a couple of hours. This left us all with a welcome break of a few hours! However soon we were back on the water and it was the girls' K2 final. Amy and Rebeka won, with myself and Naomi coming in 2nd place. The boys' were also doing well, with another silver medal in the K4. A little later was the girls' K1 final. This was a fierce race, with all of the British girls fighting hard. Rebeka, was on unbeatable form, and won - 4 seconds ahead of her Belgian rival! Amy came 3rd, Naomi 4th, myself 5th and Isobel 6th. Straight after was the boys' K2 final. Peter and Albert were really strong and came in 3rd, shortly followed by Marton and Matt in 5th.
Only two races were left, first was Marton's final - where he gave an excellent performance and won bronze. The last race for the GB team was our K4. Unbeknown to us, we had merged with the U18 race, so when we came second we were initially a little dissapointed. However, when we pulled up to receive our medals - we were very confused to find a gold around our necks... It turned out that we had beaten the other U16 crews, and won!
Overall this year's Gent regatta was fantastic. Everyone on the team won at least one medal! On behalf of the team I would like to thank Dyson Pendle, Sarah Hannon and Vicky Swallow for taking us over there, supporting us and putting up our general weirdness! It was a great trip, and I couldn't ask for a better introduction into international racing.
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