Bathed in sunshine with temperatures soaring to the high 20’s, Whitlingham Broad played host to the country’s top canoe marathon racing community on Sunday.

They were here to compete for places in the national team to race at World Cup marathon events in The Czech Republic and Germany over the summer, and potentially the World Championships to be held in Spain in September.

Norwich Canoe Club were hosting the races and had laid on a challenging course with laps around the Broad and a portage in which the competitors had to run carrying their boats around the back of the outdoor centre from one side of the broad to the other.

Albert Hicks

Norwich’s top junior athlete, Albert Hicks, continued his run of fine performances with a convincing win in the boy’s under 18 race, a 12 mile course, negotiating the 180metre portage 5 times. Albert got off to a fine start, making the front group straight away, then, as the race progressed and the front group whittled down to 2, he planned his strategy to win the race. Knowing that his competitor was a strong finisher, Albert decided to take no chances on a final sprint for the line, and instead made his move earlier. On the last portage, taking advantage of his winter of cross-training, Albert moved up a gear on the run and left his competitor for dust, paddled strong over the last lap of the race to finish 1.5 min ahead.

This was a truly impressive performance, which should certainly have earned him a place in the junior national marathon team.

Norwich CC team mates Oli Rix and Ashley Nobbs also put in strong performances to finish 6^th and 7^th respectively.

Other Norwich results from the selection races were a hard earned 5^th in the 15 mile Senior Ladies race for Louise Linnell and a disappointing withdrawal by Ben Bradshaw in the Senior Mens following problems with his boat.

In the Eastern Region Hasler Races Norwich continued to dominate with yet another win for the club to put them way ahead in the Eastern Region Club Championship. Dyson and Ali Pendle led the club’s charge for points with a win in the Div 4/5/6 K2. More points were gained by strong performances from Tim Scott, Mark Crossfield, Ian Haywood, James Large and Matthew Hayward.

The lightning category for paddlers aged under12 was once again dominated by the Norwich Club.

Harry Shearer was fastest U-12 boy and Livvy Rowe won the U-12 girls.