On the 17th of July, the ACC Junior Racing Team consisting of Chris and Katy Pereira, Laura Middlehurst and David Rushton went to the Royal Canoe Club to compete in a regatta. When we arrived, everything seemed a bit disorganised but as the day went on it got better.

When we finally got on the water, we had to do a 500 metres time trial to establish the race seeding. Then racing started. First were the new Piranha “Lightning” boats which are specially designed for the Under 12s. Laura and Chris (that’s me!) were in this race over 1000 metres – up to an island, around it and back. Neither of us got off to a very good start as everybody started together and everybody was whacking each other’s heads with their paddles or smashed into each other’s boats… But then, that’s racing for you!!!

We caught up well, though, until disaster struck when I turned around the island too sharply and had a brief encounter with a tree that obviously didn’t like me. I lost four places backing out. Then just at the end, Laura managed to overtake two people, leaving the end result as Chris 7th and Laura in a very good 9th place as this was her first time in these boats.

Next was the race for the under 16’s in K1’s which was split into ability groups depending on their time trial results. It was a 1500 metres race and David, Laura and Katy were all competing. David in his group got off to an excellent start. He led all the way and when he came to the finish the rest were still out of sight! An easy win for David who was delighted with his result!

Next were Katy and Laura, competing with four others. It started fairly well. Katy had a bit of trouble getting over the washes but managed to get into 3rd position until she suddenly slap-supported and cricked her neck, putting her out of the race. Laura carried on and ended up in 5th position.

After these two rather eventful races, it was the 200 metres in which Chris came 2nd in his age group, only just missing out on 1st place. David won his race again easily, Laura was 4th in hers but unfortunately Katy was unable to take part because of her neck injury.

All in all, it was a beautiful day and there were about 50 competitors racing, all aged under 18 years - from people in the Olympic Junior Squad to complete beginners. An excellent day out for all of us. Well done to everyone, especially to Laura and David as these were their first races!

By Christopher Pereira, June 1999