Race #2 Drain Race Report

This morning, the second race of the season was held at Hester Park, Thornlie. It was an early start as 43 paddlers and supporters converged onto a section of Canning River that is somewhat hidden away in the southern suburbs. The 3.5km course provided some narrow sections of river with low hanging trees, presenting for some exciting racing amongst a very competitive group of paddlers. The race was conducted under 30 second intervals between racers with the slower racers heading off first, followed by a quicker racers who’s job was to chase down their rival.

The battle for top line honours was dominated by Dave Worthy with a time of 15m 58s. Dave chased down Ben Pope (2nd_ 16m 29s) and managed to pip him just before the finish line. An amazing effort from Dave over the short distance. Ben Pope in second place was equally impressive by chasing down the extremely fast Mark lawson (4th_ 16m 55s) and almost passing him on the finish line. Wayne Martin (3rd_ 16m 34s) continues his battle to catch young Ben Pope and keeps a top three position.

The best of the women was Sue Quick who smashed the field with the time of 18m 44. It was a close battle for the remaining girls between Bonnie Metzke 19m 43s, Ballie Liddle 19m 46s and young Demi Obrien 19m 54s.

The Wave Hopper Category showed some very close racing. In his first race, Peter Gigengack took out line honours with 20m 37s over second placed Dave Tupling 20m 58s and third placed Alan Morbey 21m 30s and the next 4 paddlers within 20 seconds.

It certainly shows that in these short format races, every second counts and you need to blast out every ounce of energy in the closing part of the race. A lot of final positions were decided over seconds.

For overall results, visit webscorer

Photos by Lawrence Greed