The Paddle Vic state championships were cancelled earlier in the month due to a blue-green algae outbreak in Geelong, but as a result was successfully hosted by the Yarrawonga Mulwala Canoe Club in perfect conditions from below the weir at the Yarrawonga Holiday Park.
Many of Australia’s best marathon paddlers used this race as their final hit out before the Oceania and Australia Canoe Marathon championships to be held in South Australia in two weeks.
The most impressive of these paddlers was Bec Mann from Melbourne who won the open women’s race by a commanding 5 minutes. Bec is favourite to win the Australian Championships and is aiming to improve on her fifth place at the world championships last year.
In the men’s open event, it came down to a sprint finish with Melbourne paddlers Casey Haynes and David Ceddia only separated by less than a second after 24kms of racing, with Casey taking out the Victorian Championships.
Local paddlers also impressed with Yarrawonga paddler Nikita Carroll winning her under 18 race by over six minutes from fellow club members Zoe Schweda and Kristi Hardman.
Cobram young gun Emma Corin won the Under 16 race over 10km in a super-fast time of 52 minutes. Other Yarrawonga juniors also won medals with Azaria McBurnie winning the under 14, Joanne Southwick winning the under 10 event and Amylee Southwick finishing only 1 sec behind the winner of the under 12 event to take home a silver medal.
Juniors play a big part of paddling on the Murray, and the club rewards these juniors with their own award ‘The Wendy’ which were won by Cobram’s Jack Corrin as the fastest boy and the fastest girl was won by Daphee Bradley from Bendigo.
A big turnout out by the single blades (Canoeist) contested the “Kevin Phillips Classic” with Echuca Moama paddler James Graham out sprinting Tony Bond in the male event and Karen Merlo from Melbourne winning the female event.
This event was only possible due to the support from the members of the Yarrawonga Mulwala Canoe Club, Paddle Vic Volunteers, the Yarrawonga SES, the Yarrawonga Holiday Park for the use of their facilities and the Criterion Hotel for hosting our presentation of awards.
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