WAIS Athletes Dominate Local Canoeing Regatta
Last Saturday saw WAIS athletes compete in the fourth Regatta of the local Regatta Competition Series at Champion Lakes. Racing was fast and furious with the National Championships in Perth only eight weeks away.
In the men’s competition Reece Baker (Marmion) showed that he is on track for some good results at Nationals with win’s in both the K1 500m and K1 1000m in 1.45.30 and 3.43.33. With a very competitive field Baker did not have things all his own way in the 500m with Jesse Phillips (Nollamara) pushing him throughout, finishing only 0.35 seconds behind with Brendan Sarson (Balcatta) snapping at their heels in 1.46.21.
In the 1000m event Baker cleared out early from the field with Sarson in tow opening a gap on the rest of the field. With 250m to go Baker had over a length lead and looked to be heading for a comfortable win until Brendan Sarson put on a Ken Wallace like finish to almost snatch the win. Baker’s winning time was 3.43.33 followed by Sarson in 3.43.79 with Daniel Bowker (Kingsley) best of the rest having a very solid race for third in 3.51.37.
The men’s K2 races saw some exciting finishes with Jesse Phillips and Steve Bird (Mount Pleasant) the leading K2 combination at the first National Regatta Grand Prix last month almost being upstaged by the combination of Baker and Sarson racing together for the first time. Both 500m and 1000m races saw these crews exchange the lead several times down the course with Phillips and Bird prevailing both times by a matter of centimetres.
WAIS Head Coach Ramon Andersson said, “It was great to see such a high standard of racing and knowing that Phillips and Bird should be in the top few crews nationally, the performance of Baker and Sarson provides some food for thought as I look to lock in a partner for Reece for Nationals”.
The women’s events saw Alana Nicholls (Dianella) equal her best time of 1.53 in the K1 500m to comfortably win from Jenni Bateman (Wembley) and Lisa Russ (Hilton). Nicholls also comfortably won the K1 200m with Russ and Bateman reversing their finish order of the 500m event. In the 1000m event Olympic Bronze Medallist Russ found the distance more to her liking given the stage of her training following a break post Beijing Olympics with a comfortable win from Nicholls and Bateman.
In the K2 500m and K2 200m event Russ and Nicholls finished lengths ahead of the field with Andersson commenting, “It was great to see Alana and Lisa combine so well and give me some hope on developing a crew locally rather than having both them paddle with Eastern states partners which can be an issue with time away from home and so on”.
This weekend will see members of the WAIS squad involved in a variety of competitions all involving the ocean. Brendan Sarson will be competing in the first round of Kellogs Nutrigrain Ironman Grand Prix on the Gold Coast whilst Alana Nicholls and Daniel Bowker will compete in the second round of the Surf Lifesaving Premiership Series at Leighton Beach.
Most of the remainder of the squad will turn their attention to the Ocean Racing World Cup from Rottnest Island to Scarborough Beach featuring Olympic Gold Medallist Clint Robinson and former World Marathon Kayak Champion Hank MacGregor from South Africa amongst the favourites with Oscar Chalupsky (South Africa) considered to be the best Ocean Racer of all time not to be dismissed even in the twilight of his career. Reece Baker is expected to be best of the WAIS athletes and anything in the top ten will be a good result.Follow the race at http://surfski.info/