This Sunday was Leighton Buzzard Canoe Club’s annual Remembrance Race, 15 miles from Great Linford to Milton Keynes. The race sees the profits going to the Poppy Appeal and starts after a 2-minute silence at 11am. The race involves 4 portages, which includes running around ‘three locks’ together on the grand union canal.
The A class race start is for those paddlers who would normally race in divisions 1, 2 and 3 in the marathon hasler racing system. The singles race was won by Leighton’s Sam Plummer with Max Pickering coming in 4th.
In the B start, which is for paddlers who would normally race in divisions 4, 5 and 6 in the Hasler racing system Ben Stratford came in 2nd, Jack Rayment came 3rd, Sam Legg in 7th, and Paul Murphy who paddled with Maggie Rae who chose to race up from the C start came in a joint 9th.
The C start is for those paddlers who normally race in divisions 7, 8 and 9 in the Hasler racing system and Steve Hodgkinson came in 2nd.
In the doubles racing on the B start the race was won by Jodie Barrell and Paul Stenning, with Elie Mae Bennett racing with Sam Reee-Clark coming in 2nd, Katy Dixon and Josh Power in 5th, Adam Kear and Charlie Toosey in 8th and Amanda Morris and Bryan Handsley in 9th.
On the C start in the double Amy Carter and Carly Hudson came in 4th. In the canoe doubles the race was won by Nigel Dixon and Mike Thornton.
There was also a relay option to the race, with the first boat racing 6.5 miles to the first lock at Fenny Stratford where they would change over to the second boat who then races 8.5 miles to the finish. In the singles relay the team of Leon Dixon and Joseph Galliers won the race while in the doubles relay Fiona Barber, Mandy Hussey, Janka Szocs and Charlotte Creamer also won their race.
For the newer or younger paddlers there was also a novice race of 5 miles starting from Stoke Hammond. The singles race was won by Francesca Davis with Kayleigh Dixon in 2nd and Ruby Perkins in 3rd. In the doubles race Will Perkins and Megan Pickering came 1st.
