Last weekend D and I attended the BUSA White Water Racing Championships held at the Washburn. D competing for the Newcastle University Canoe Club and me providing on the water safety cover for those that were a little nervous! 
As usual, winter arrived in the week before the event so it was freezing cold! 
Saturday dawned, bright and sunny, but still -6�C. I hadn�t really planned to go boating, just to offer my support from the bank. But within 10 minutes of arriving and D saying, �hey Dan, do you want to do some safety boating?� I was sliding into my Mafia! I spent the rest of the day chasing people in (and occasionally out of) wacky racers down the full 2 miles of the Washburn, I think my fastest time was some where in the region of 10mins 45secs, a fairly respectable time considering I was in a creek boat!!!
D spent the day, doing a bit of safety, but mainly competing, C1, C2, K1��..
First event of the day for D was the C1. Competing in an ageing, and somewhat small C1 slalom boat, his run went pretty well, good lines but he struggled to find a rhythm towards the end. His time was faster than last year, but second place was the best he could manage again!!!
Then came the C2. D and his C2 partner (one Mr. James Read) had another good run and were in unison for the majority of the time, again going faster than last year but were destined for 3rd place, only four second from silver.
D�s final competitive run was in the K1 men�s team event, one of the team had an unlucky but very graceful breakout at the top of the course, so from there we were always going to struggle to post a fast time.
Between us we paddled the river 9 times on the Saturday!
Sunday came and first up was a Duo race, a head-to-head race that ran from the top of the river to the big weir. Due to poor communications D and his partner broke out in the eddy directly below the weir but the finish was further down stream!
Success on Sunday came in the form of a bronze medal in the K1 mixed team event, with a poor girl by the name of Louise McDougall getting shouted at to, �paddle faster� from start to finish!!
I managed a few more runs down the river, posting a personal best time (unconfirmed as I was still safety boating) of 10mins 15secs!! 
Check out Birmingham University Canoe Club�s website for all the results and photos�.