Banbury sprint paddlers impressed at the weekend, with all those attending the first national regatta of the year making at least one final.

World Championship finalist, Amy Turner, won the women’s K4 race, in the pre-selected boat, which should secure her seat for this year’s internationals. Turner also took 2nd in the Women’s K2 200 with Hannah Brown (WYCC). Iain Weir with Joe Hayman-Joyce (Wey) had a simple win in the C2 1000, while others on the podium included Max Harper 2nd in the Boys A/B K2 500 with Alex Greaves (RLSCC) and Jessie Urquhart 3rd in Girls C K2 500, with Lili May-Smith (Reading CC).

With a number of paddlers having gone up into new age/ranking groups, there were a number of other very strong results. Joe Petersen, with his Junior World Championships partner, Finn Cadell (LKR) made the finals of the men’s K2 500 and 1000, and Alex Battison, racing C1 for the first time, also qualified for his finals, which will surely see him promoted.

A young group of junior boys coped well with the pressures of racing at this level. Will Pepper and Noah Moxon both made finals in their K1s and in their K2; Harry Critchfield and Michael Phillips got into a K2 final, as did Josh Perry despite only paddling with S Cribbett (RLSCC) for the first time.
Following a recent marathon assessment race, Joe Petersen has been selected in his first year as an U23 to race in a development squad at the German Marathon National Championships.

The international selections were announced a couple of days after the regatta, and Amy has been selected for the K4 400, and Iain for the C2 1000 for World Cups 1 and 2.