With 433 days since the last time Stafford &Stone Canoe Club paddlers were competing in the UK, the club enjoyed a special treat as it played host to the prestigious U18 &U23 Junior selection event.
The weekend was tinged with a little sadness that restrictions meant the club were unable to host their annual Premier event the McConkey Memorial race, but it is safe to say the juniors on the water truly made up for it.
The event was 4 single run races held over the two days, with the best three results counting. Representing the Club were:
- U23 C1M; Sam Maingay, Kurts Adams Rozentals, Alfie Boote
- U18; Luc Royle, Klass Francisk Rozentals & George Harratt
- U18 K1W; Kate Lyndon
- U23 K1M; Chris Bowers &; Ed Dickinson, U18; Thomas Mayer and Klass Francisk Rozentals.
Also racing, but not counting towards the results were GB Team paddlers Adam Burgess and Joe Clarke, both getting valuable racing practice.
The British Canoeing team set the courses, and the Slalom Committee ran the timing, judging and control of the racing, and S&SCC are proud to announce that they have been successful in again becoming a Slalom Talent Club Partners announced for 2021-2025 (britishcanoeing.org.uk).
The club prides itself on recruiting and nurturing young people into the sport of Canoe Slalom and will be working closely with British Canoeing to recruit and train Canoe Slalom talent over the
next four years. The partnership allows talented youngsters to access further support and training to enable them to develop and achieve. The partnership will also support them to access further venues for training with different and more challenging waters.
In C1, Kurts Adams Rozentals had a strong weekend with a 3rd, 2nd, 2nd and 5th place. These impressive results was enough to gain Kurts 2nd overall and a place in the U23 team. Luc Royle showed he meant business from the start with 4 brilliant runs, resulting in a 1st, 2nd, 1st and 2nd. This left him top of the table coming 1st overall and on the junior team.
As with every race, not everyone makes the podium, this was desperately upsetting to those so close to making the team. This was true for Sam Maingay, who had consistently achieved good runs, with a 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 3rd. It all came down to a nerve-racking final run where his closest rival drew on points, with Sam sprinting to the next gate. Unfortunately for Sam, due to Vittorio having won a race he took the 3rd place overall and the spot on the team. Sam had done such a good job all weekend and it was so upsetting for him and his army of supporters, but the club knows he will go away, focus and be back stronger than ever.
Klass Francisks Rozentals managed an impressive 4th in the juniors. Alfie Boote managed 6th position and whilst he didn’t make the U23 is going away to focus on senior selection.
Finally in C1 was George Harratt, now it’s safe to say, and George would agree, but he was never really going to bother the top end of the field. George was invited to selections, due to his J18 ranking in 
Div1. Now many would say what’s the point, but not George, he hit the course (and a few gates) with everything he had and loved every second of it, big grin in place at the end of each run. As he said “you don’t get to race at junior selections every day” and why not. It was a pleasure to
see someone enjoying their sport and opportunity to compete at a high level, so well done George.
Representing the women this year was Kate Lyndon in K1. The event was a step up from her previous experiences in Prem and she handled it amazingly, coming in 5th overall. If this weekends performance was anything to go by the future is looking very good for Kate.
Men’s U23 K1 was as close fought event. Chris Bowers dominated the weekend 
with 1st, 2nd, 2nd and 1st. Taking him too 1st overall and on the team. Chris was on fire from the start and to prove it he beat Joe Clarke on his first run. Well done on such a strong performance. Ed Dickinson raced well, but it wasn’t to be his weekend finishing 14th.
Mens U18 K1 was a stressful weekend for Horst and Helen, Thomas Mayer’s parents! Thomas decided he would go for the slow burn approach to the weekend, waiting for the Sunday to explode! Saturday saw Thomas gain 3rd and 8th place. This really put the pressure on for Sunday, he had to perform! This pressure seemed to work well for Thomas, if not his parents and he smashed two 1st places, with the first run a full 4 second faster than 2nd place. It all came to the final run and as he crossed the finish line and the realisation that he had done it, the relief and jubilation was palpable!
Congratulations Thomas and we hope your parents have recovered. After a tricky Saturday Klass managed to improve on the Sunday and came in 15th place.
In addition to the juniors and U23’s, three senior paddlers took part in exhibition races, with Adam Burgess and Mallory Franklin taking the opportunity to get some race practice before flying out to Tokyo in just a few weeks time. With Joe Clarke joining them on the start line it was a real treat to get to watch the worlds top paddlers on the course. Joe admitted he hadn’t paddled at Nottingham since 2013, but nobody could tell.
This was a massive weekend in terms of the scale of the event and on top of that running it under Covid restrictions. A massive thank you has to go to everyone who attended, the athletes, coaches and supporters who all adhered to the rules in place and made the event such a success and run so smoothly, pathing the way to a resumption of racing.
The army of demo paddlers who didn’t stop running up the course to do another run. To all the volunteers from S&SCC and other clubs who stepped into jobs to make the event run smoothly.
Finally and biggest thanks has to go to Dave Royle, without whom the weekend just wouldn’t have happened. Dave worked tirelessly for weeks planning and organising and already big event, but now with added rules and regulations. I think everyone would agree what an amazing job he and his team did. Thankfully Luc did his job well, so it was all worth it Dave!
The new partnership with British canoeing also supports Coach Development within the club. S&SCC introduced a new Coach Development Plan in 2020 to strengthen their team of Volunteer Coaches. This was funded with a grant from the Arts and Sports Trust. The first year of the plan has been very successful and with the new TCP this will go further to supporting this plan for development over the next four years.
Charlie Barwiss, Talent Club Manager at British Canoeing said: “Stafford & Stone Canoe Club have been part of British Canoeing’s Talent Club Partnership since it’s inception in 2018. It is a real pleasure to welcome them onto the programme for the 2021-2025 cycle. As a club, they have been a standard bearer for Canoe Slalom in the UK and have contributed greatly to all aspects of the sport.
“A key reason for their inclusion onto this programme has been the vision and ambition the club have set for bringing new paddlers into the sport and developing them upwards. Their recent Taster Days are a great example of the hard work, dedication and ambition the club have, with 70 new paddlers attending and many now progressing into club membership and regular activity. I look forward to working with the club and supporting them in achieving their ambitions.”
