Paddlers from Stafford and Stone Canoe Club in Stone once again featured heavily in the Canoe Slalom British Open at the 2012 Olympic Venue in Lee Valley, London.
In the Canadian Singles heats, club paddler Mark Proctor was 2nd and in C1W, another club athlete, Emily Woodcock was just edged out of third place by less than a second.
Semis and finals took place on Sunday and 10 places were to be qualified in each class for the final itself. From Stafford and Stone Emily Woodcock qualified in both K1W and C1W, Jasmine Royle also in C1W, James Bailey in K1M, Mark Proctor in C1M, Rob Harratt paddling with Will Smith in C2M.
In the finals, Jasmine Royle was one of the first to go and held her lead until the last two paddlers came down. Unfortunately, although her time was fast enough, penalties from hitting too many gates let her down, but she had done enough to retain third place with Emily in 5th.
In K1M, James Bailey had an incredible clear run on one of the toughest courses in the World and managed to place third behind Olympic Bronze medal winner Hannes Aigner from Germany and GB Team paddler Huw Swetnam. In C1M Mark Proctor (supported by Zipvit) was able to secure second once again just behind double World Champion David Florence.
Dave Royle from the club said : “It was great to be back at Lee Valley again and superb to see three Stafford and Stone Paddlers accepting their awards on the podium at the final race of the British racing season.”
After the racing, Jasmine Royle (who is currently looking for sponsorship), said: “The Olympic course is a really difficult place to compete and the course set for the British Open was quite tough. I was really pleased to achieve third place at the event after quite a few mistakes on earlier runs down the course over the weekend.”
Other club paddlers competing at Lee Valley were Scarlett Kearney, Tom Brady, Rob Neave, Robin Vasey, Austin Barker, Chris Bowers, Peter Willett, Mike Dickinson, Isaac Barker, John Dickinson, Rob Holdway, David Bain, Paul Sunderland and Jamie Weddell.
Lots more information about Stafford and Stone Canoe Club, which is based at Westbridge Park in Stone, on their website HERE
