The ECA Sprint Cup Final was held on the River Dee, Wales, over the weekend amid tricky weather conditions.
Nicky Cresser has written the following report.
Saturday 23rd November saw a very eventful day on the Dee in Llangollen, with the ECA Sprint Cup final, the final National race of the 2024 British ranking series.
There were concerns that the race was going to be a marred by low-water after a dry start to November, cold temperatures and mid-week snow.
Storm Bert put pay to those concerns with the river levels rising exponentially over the day resulting in second runs being cancelled, and the top paddlers seizing the opportunity to enjoy one of the best British wild water rivers.
The pre-race excitement didn’t disappoint.
The changing conditions and ultimate cancellation of second runs saw the final standings being decided off first runs.
The Men’s Kayak was hotly contested with U23 Classic World Champion Jan Sindelar (CZE) taking the win over Freddie Brown (GBR) by 0.17 seconds, who was joined on the podium by his training partner Alex Sheppy.
This third place was enough to secure the overall championship title ahead of Ivo Lamers (NED), who was only able to secure sixth place today, and Freddie Brown in Third.
This represents a significant step forward in the men’s kayak category after Alex’s World Cup Medal earlier this year.
The future is looking very positive too with Huw Singleton the top junior athlete by quite some margin.
The Women’s Kayak class had many surprises!
Britain’s golden girls Hannah Brown and Kerry Christie struggled with the changing water levels, with both spinning out in the Tail section.
With no second runs they were unable to challenge the top spots.
Molly Sandercock’s flying run took a commanding lead, over two seconds ahead of Victoria Murray, Laura Milne and the top junior athlete Ronja Hasselhoff (GER).
Kerry’s early season form was enough to take the victory in the overall standings where she was joined on the podium by training partners, Emma Christie and Molly Sandercock.
In the junior category Elsie Landsborough also followed the top British girl’s lead taking the top spot too.
The CZE and SVK athletes Alexandra Plachtova and Viktoria Scholzova dominated the C1W field showing their incredible white water skills.
However, Molly Sandercock and Kerry Christie took the top two positions in the overall rankings.
In C2, Kerry and Emma took the top spot, continuing their domination in this category.
They were closely followed by Laura Milne and Iona Patrick in 2nd place.
The Men’s canoe categories also saw some success in what is a growth area domestically.
Jacob Holmes and Robert Jefferies will be pleased with their second place finish today behind Tobias Trnka and Filip Stratil (CZE), which sees them take 3rd place overall in the series.
In C1, the highest placed British athlete was Nicky Cresser finishing in 3rd and securing 4th place overall.
It was great to see rafting alongside the WWR event with 16 teams taking on the challenge with some very tight racing.
The top three crews separated by less than 0.7 or a second with the team of ‘Mind the Age Gap’ taking the win over ‘R.E.D’ and the ‘Muddy Mallards’ taking third.