Category: Club News for the Public

Reading Canoe Club Juniors Shine on the International Stage

by Imogen Collins

On Tuesday, 16th September, Reading Canoe Club juniors Oli Mazur, Charlotte Fulford-Perez, Ruth Shephard, and Doogal Barnett – joined by Imogen Collins – flew out with the GB Junior Team to the Czech Republic for the Olympic Hopes Regatta. In the lead-up, all athletes trained hard, determined to perform at their best – and they delivered.

Olympic Hopes is a prestigious four-day event featuring U15, U16, and U17 categories with 52 countries competing. Each nation can enter two boats per event, making progression through rounds especially tough. Our athletes’ events were:

• Oli Mazur (U17): K1 500m, K4 500m
• Charlotte Fulford-Perez (U17): K1 500m, K1 200m
• Ruth Shephard (U15, racing up an age category): K1 1000m, K2 500m, U17 K4 500m
• Doogal Barnett (U15): K1 1000m, K1 500m, K2 1000m

Day 1 – Strong Starts

All four athletes rose to the challenge, progressing from their heats into the semi-finals – a brilliant achievement given the high entry standards and international field.

Day 2 – Finals Begin

Ruth stormed into the A final in her K1 1000m, finishing 7th – an outstanding result for an U14 racing in U15. She raced with fierce determination and power well beyond her years.
Doogal raced hard in a competitive C final, gaining invaluable experience at this level and showing strong composure and effort.

Day 3 – U17s Step Up

Oli dominated his K1 500m semi-final to secure a spot in the A final – his main goal for the event. Despite a tight turnaround before the final, he raced bravely and with ambition throughout.
Charlotte, having a fantastic regatta, clocked a new PB of 2:03 in her K1 500m semi-final, just missing the A final. Her grit and consistency across the weekend were hugely impressive.

Day 4 – Big Boats & Final Pushes

Charlotte returned in the K1 200m, flying out of the start buckets with another PB and earning a B final spot. She delivered a composed, determined performance to take 4th – a strong finish to a great weekend.
Oli took his place in the Boys K4 500m, a boat he’s raced all season at Europeans and Worlds. The crew executed a strong semi-final to earn a coveted A final spot – the first GB Boys K4 to do so at Olympic Hopes since 2018.
In the final, the boys fought hard in an incredibly tight race, finishing 4th. Though just missing the podium, it was a performance to be proud of, reflecting their season-long growth and unity.

A Proud Showing

All four athletes showed professionalism, resilience, and maturity throughout the event. Whether it was a first international outing or a final appearance after three years at this regatta, they represented Reading Canoe Club with pride and distinction. As their coach, I couldn’t be prouder to have shared this experience with them.

Big thanks to Mili, Karina, Immi and Matt on the bbq and Miriam for arranging and sorting the barbecue for our last TT and bbq in late September. And to those who came along. A small, select gathering for the Club’s last TT and BBQ for 2025 … thankfully mostly indoors as it was a touch chilly!

Please find below the training plan for the winter season created by the coaching team. It gives even greater opportunity for members to join in training sessions than previous years. Do take a look and check in with your group point of contact to chat through all sessions available to you.

Please note, the winter schedule will officially start on Monday 6th October, but check with your coach to confirm in case they choose to start it earlier.

Thanks

Imogen Collins
Head Coach

Link: 25/26 Winter Training Schedule

The club was delighted to welcome a record number of paddlers to this year’s Hasler – 281 seats, with 56 K2 entries and 169 K1s. We were particularly pleased to see a good turn out from Divs 1 & 2 from within region and outside. It was great to see many Reading paddlers giving it their all, including many new to racing. Newest of all was Sonny, who had only finished his beginners course on 18th June. Sonny completed his Div 9 K1 race in a very respectable time!

Well done to all our podium winners:
Katherine Connor and Karina – 2nd Div8 K2
Matteo and Sam Boughton – 2nd Div5 K2
Amber and Luke – 1st Div4 K2
Xavier MacLeod – Div9 K1 promotion
Ben Saxby – 3rd Div 7 K1 promotion
Nick Gumbridge – 2nd Div6 K1 promotion
Bruno – 3rd Div6 K1 promotion
Matthew Mainprize – 1st Div5 K1 promotion
Balazs – 1st DIv4 K1
Tyler – 2nd Div2K1
Marcell – 3rd Div2K1

There were many others who did a great race too, so well done to all. Great organisation by Karina, Evan and the team and a huge thank you to all the volunteers from the Club – it couldn’t have happened without you.

Thanks to all of you who have joined us for this year’s Reading Circuit Race – it was great to see so many athletes compete on the Reading stretch of the Thames. The weather was mostly forgiving and the competition was fierce but polite. Congratulations to all the winners and everyone who have taken part.

You can find the preliminary results at https://reading-canoe.org.uk/live-results

We hope to see you soon at a Reading race. Look out for details about our K4 race in the autumn soon!

Karina and the Reading Team

You can find the entries for this Sunday’s Reading Circuit race at https://reading-canoe.org.uk/live-results

We will post the live results to the same page during the day as they become available.

A sizeable team of Reading Canoe Club paddlers went out for a warm but breezy Falcon Hasler yesterday, 22nd June.

Congratulations to Greta & Matteo, who both earned provisional promotions with potentially more promotions to come.

Congratulations also to Trevor & Damon(2nd place in Div 6 K2), Karina & Katherine (1st place in Div 8 K2), and Nikki & Kerstin (3rd place in Div 8 K2).

Xavier & Benjamin both got 2nd places in Geoff Saunders A & B respectively, plus a winning K2 outing. Div 3 K2 saw 3 podium boats with Reading paddlers in, so well done to Conrad (with Ben), Doogal (with Ocean) and Aidan & Fergus. 

Bring on our home race in two weeks time!

On Saturday 21st June, a group of 7 paddlers took to canoes to commence with the first river clean of the year. To much of our surprise, the river around the club was pretty much clear of rubbish. Sadly, that changed the closer we came to the Fisheries. An air mat, shopping trolleys and a push chair to name but a few big items we fished out. A lot of small plastic items and bottles as well two chemical toilets all were removed by the group. The most curious item you wonder? A suitcase full of clothes!

We did it! After a number of years of Thameside races not going ahead because of covid and fast river flow, 2025 allowed us to host both Thameside 1 on 2nd March and then a fortnight later Thameside 2.

Thameside 1 saw 144 paddlers entering in 85 boats this year. Participants and supporters enjoyed a glorious day of sunshine and near perfect paddling conditions from Aldermaston Wharf back to Reading, with hot dogs in the sunshine as a reward. It was a great day for Reading to showcase what we do best; not just hosting great race days but also putting our best paddles forward on the racing front with lots of our club members out on the water. 

A few of our Juniors made podium places and all deserve a shout out:

Ruth Shephard came 1st place with her Weybridge partner in the Junior Ladies K2 class.

Oli Mazur and Freddie Heard (Exeter) came 2nd in Junior Men’s K2 class, and Marcel Nagy came 2nd in Junior Men’s K1.

Well done to everyone who took part!

Thameside 2 was busier still with 188 participants joining us for the race from Reading down to a new finish point at Bisham Abbey. It was a bit of a chilly day but the rain held off. River conditions made some of the getting-in points a bit choppy, resulting in a number of swimmers, but the majority of the paddlers made it down to the finish point to enjoy a warming cup of soup and hot cross bun.

Again lots of Reading paddlers had their race face on, so big congratulations to everyone who raced and especially our Juniors who, as always, did us proud again with the following podium finishers:

Marcel Nagy took 1st place in Junior Men K1 with Tymur Rudnyev close behind him in 2nd place. In fact, Reading made up 75% of this category with Beni Nagy also in the running and narrowly missing out on making it a Reading hat trick.

Oli Mazur and Freddie Heard (Exeter) came 2nd in Junior Men’s K2, Charlotte Fulford-Perez took 1st place for Junior Ladies K1, and Annabel Hutchinson and Frankie Scrivener (Falcon) took 1st place for Junior Ladies K2.

A great success for the club with lots of positive feedback received from across the paddling community, including some (self appointed) Vikings who came all the way from Norway to paddle on the Thames with us! The only thing left to say is a great big thank you to all of the volunteers who helped out over the course of the 2 days – we couldn’t do it without you!