Following the successes of sister club, YUCPC (Canoe Polo) on Saturday, YUCC and our Lancastrian counterparts headed to Howsham Weir to compete in canoe slalom.
Canoe slalom is an exciting time trial event, with separate men’s and women’s categories, where the aim is to get from the top of the course to the bottom, passing through all the gates – some upstream, some downstream – without missing any, hitting any (incurring penalties if you do) and preferably remaining upright!
The winning team is calculated using the fastest 3 competitors from each University.
In 2012, York and Lancaster took one event each, but this year York was out to defeat Lancaster in both.
This seemed an even bigger feat due to the fact that YUCC, unlike every other canoe club, have been denied access to the university pool, making any kind of training far more difficult than it should be.
Throughout the day, all the kayakers had one run of the course, and it soon became clear that York were going to come out on top.
YUCC are lucky enough to have two incredible slalom boaters, and Mark Stoner and Heather Lindsay certainly ensured that YUCC came out on top.
Stoner, with the fastest time of the day, completed the course in 51.1 seconds including only 1 penalty.
Our men’s team dominated the Lancastrians, with the fastest three times overall coming from YUCC, from Mark Stoner, Joe “Greg” Newbold, and Daniel Swan, all of whom completed the course in under a minute.
The women’s team were also strong, and despite the fastest time going to a Lancastrian, managed to win overall with our top 3 times coming from Heather Lindsay, Ellie Davies and Faith Wilkinson.
Thiss turned out to be the decisive result in Roses2013, the two points pushing York past the magic number.
Roses 2013 was incredibly successful for YUCC, and a huge improvement on previous year’s results.
It was an incredible way to end our year, having seen much success and improvement, thanks to the work of our captain, Joe Newbold.