Bishop’s Stortford Canoe Club come third in Norwich Hasler Marathon on River Yare at Whittingham Country Park

Bishop’s Stortford Canoe Club came third in the Norwich Hasler Marathon to move up two places in the standings.

They are now joint third with two events to go after their efforts on the River Yare at Whittingham Country Park and are back in the running to qualify for a place at the national final in September.

Although the Stortford team was small, with only 16 Hasler entries, nine of these won medals and contributed maximum or near-maximum points to the club’s race score.

However, some of the most notable performances came from those who did not get a place on the podium.

Jaroslav Klumpler completed the 6.5km circuit in 35min 27sec to finish fourth in Division Seven. His time was only 28 seconds outside the promotion time to Division Six.

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Similarly, Eilidh White, in Division Nine, completed the same distance and finished ninth, but her time of 39.41 was so close to the promotion time that all but one of those who finished ahead of her were promoted.

Hot on White’s heels in Division Nine was Isabel Knight, the team’s newest recruit, who finished 11th with an impressive time of 42.07 in her first race.

Finlay Sandal and Oliver Klumpler were the club’s gold medal winners on this course with their time of 41.07 in Division Nine doubles.

The competitors in Divisions Four, Five and Six had to complete two laps of the course (13km) as well as portages.

Chris Sze and Ben Tubby led the Division Four doubles race for most of the distance, but were eventually overtaken and finished just eight seconds behind the winners for silver in 1hr 4min 38sec.

In Division Five singles, Eddie Kirtland and Tony Brett bagged gold and silver for the club with times of 1:11.05 and 1:11.27 respectively.

The top divisions completed three laps on the River Yare totalling 19.5km and even more portages.

A gold medal over this distance was won by David Gurney (Division 2, 1:39.02) and silvers went to Joe Fitzpatrick (Division 2 doubles, 1:27.10, paddling with Ollie Rix of Norwich) and Kat Wilson (Division 3 doubles, 1:38.54, paddling with Leah Falltrick of Chelmsford).

A further gold was won by Jasper Kirkland in the under-14s Division A race (20.50, 3.5km).

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The event was heavily dominated by hosts Norwich who were by far the largest team among the 165 competitors and achieved the maximum score of 600 points. Chelmsford took second with 592 while third-placed Stortford scored 580.

BSCC results: Doubles – Div 2: 2nd Joe Fitzpatrick & Ollie Rix 1hr 27min 10sec; Div 3: 2 Kat Wilson & Leah Falltrick 1:38.54; Div 4: 2 Chris Sze & Ben Tubby 1:04.38; Div 5: 5 Kerstin Queeney & Catherine Ayling 1:10.48; Div 9: 1 Finlay Sandall & Oliver Klumpler 41min 7sec. Singles – Div 2: 1 David Gurney 1:39.02; Div 4: Mark Adams (rtd); Div 5: 1 Eddie Kirtland 1:11.05, 2 Tony Brett 1:11.27; Div 7: 4 Jaroslav Klumpler 35.27; Div 9: 9 Eilidh White 39.41, 11 Isabel Knight 42.07, 12 Karen Bradley 43.39, 15 Kerry Tubby 45.38; Under-14A: 1 Jasper Kirtland 20.50; Under-14B: 4 Rupert Kirtland 22.38.