Irish National Champs Round 1

Irish National Champs Round 1

Dave Crerar

The first round of the Irish national Champs went of this past weekend in Limerick. With cold weather and exams looming the turnout was mediocre compared to previous years, but the tunes were blasting out and we still went along to have a bit of craic. As the feature is non retainable we all got 4 runs in the first found, which is pretty sweet as you get more paddling time. We had a great junior turnout this year also.

Len Kelleher

Anthony Yapp

The heats went off without a hitch, the mens was a close comp all the way to the end, the Kelleher bro’s giving it hard as per usual and Neil Gibson and myself in hot pursuit all the way to the finals, however in the end it was the older Moe Kelleher that took gold, Gibson second and Len third, bowzie 4th and myself 5th.

Coran, Jnr Number 1

Neil Gibson

We had a bit of a charade played out on Saturday afternoon when the ladies refused to continue, as it was too cold, and so they retired to the comfort of some tea and cake, only in Ireland. Their finals were played out today and Kim was the outright winner. Juniors was an interesting comp, some finding it hard to catch the wave, we even had a kid out in a Jackson Kayaks Fun 1, which I thought was pretty cool.

Kelleher Bro's

Event one of the two part series went off without a hitch, Bowzie was great and had everyone register, organised and on the water on time, which I believe, is relatively unheard of here in Ireland.

Kim Sikerman

Jenny Kilbride

Prizes were sponsored by Munster Dive and Canoe and Kayaking.ie. Round two will be taking place in two weeks in Clifden. A big shout out is in order for all the organisers and competitors and of course all the judges who froze for two days some not even getting a chance to paddle, thanks a million and see you in a few weeks.

Len Kelleher

Dave Crerar

Photo’s taken by Ross Redmond & Dave Crerar