Hasler Marathon Finals
Having qualified for the event by finishing in the top 7 clubs during the 2018/19 marathon season, 4As team travelled down to Fairthorne Manor, the home of Southampton Canoe Club, to compete in the Hasler Finals.These were held on the River Hamble and presented a new challenge to the group, as non had ever paddled a marathon on a tidal river before.
The hard work and dedication involved for 4As just to qualify cannot be underestimated. This was forcibly brought home to the team from an overheard conversation before the races started.
Quote: “4As, how the bl***y hell did they get here!”, and from learning that one of the big racing teams who were pushed out of the finals, had demanded a re-count of the points because they couldn’t believe it! The paddlers attended every marathon race in the Midlands region throughout the year, even though it meant long suffering parents sometimes driving for 3 hours just to get to a venue, and coped with constant swapping round of K2 partners, to make best tactical use of the small pool of competitors.
Although there were 8 paddlers in the original team, including Beth Fisher and Daniel Spencer, only 6 were able to take part in the final races.
Father and son team, Paul and Jacob Hage, competed in K2 in Division 5, which was an 8 mile paddle involving 2 circuits of a 4 mile course. Jacob’s skilful steering of the boat allowed the pair to overtake other competitors using the 3 turns. They eventually finished in 16th place in a field of 36 boats and completed the course in 1:06:33.
Cousins, Zac Marshall and Jacob Mansfield, had an excellent race in Division 7, which took place over the 4 mile course. Despite Jacob being accidentally bashed round the head with a paddle, they finished a fantastic 5th in a time of 34:35.
Daniel Warwick and Julie Gray also paddled in Division 7 and came 21st with a time of 36:57. There were 23 boats in this race which prompted an incredulous Daniel to raise his arms to declare triumphantly, “Yes! We weren’t last!”
When all the points were added together, 4As placed 25th out of the best 30 marathon teams in the country. To put this into perspective, the winning team had 52 paddlers, compared to 4As 6 finalists.
This was a great achievement for the club, as well as a big surprise to other clubs in the paddling community. Apart from coaches, Julie and Paul, all of these young people have additional challenges to their daily lives. However, they have shown that, with determination, they can overcome them, to do something they can be proud of, and hopefully inspire other club members to follow their example.