Foyle Paddlers among the medals at World Championships
THREE MEMBERS of Derry's Foyle Paddlers Canoe Club formed part of a highly-successful Northern Ireland team which claimed gold, silver and bronze medals at the World Surf Kayaking Championships in Mundaka in northern Spain.
Brothers Corin and Jake King both contributed to the team's success, Corin claiming second spot in the Junior section, as the Irish team upset the odds at the prestigious event.
Jake, 13, made it through to the quarter-finals of the Short Boat category while Corin, 15, finished first in his quarter-final and semi-final heats and made it all the way to the final of the Long Boat category, eventually finishing in the silver medal position.
Considering this was the first international competition the brothers had taken part in, this was a remarkable feat.
The third local man to take part in the competition was Gerald McGahey, who was knocked out in the first round after coming up against stiff opposition in poor conditions. McGahey made the first round after finishing second in his heat in the preliminary rounds and was only knocked out by one of the eventual finalists.
The Derry lads were also involved in the team event, with the Northern Ireland team finishing in 2nd place overall, losing out to hosts, the Basque Country.
After two full days of competition they had narrowly piped the USA to gain the all important fourth and final of the four slots in finals day.
It was a tense time for the squad as they anxiously waited to hear if they had made it through to the final. Team member, Johnny Bingham said it was an emotional experience for the squad.
Emotional
"Waiting for the organisers to announce the last of the results at the end of Day Two had everybody on tender hooks and it was a fairly emotional experience," explained Bingham.
The squad surfed the 1.5 metre waves leading the event for the first six of the heats but Basque Country came back into the surfing in the 17th heat and remained in front until the end. Despite the disappointment, the Northern Ireland squad members were thrilled with second place.
While the squad narrowly missed out on achieving first place in the team event, they certainly made up for it in the individual events.
The junior members of the Northern Ireland Kayaking squad dominated the Juniors Long final ruling out the other competitors with a chance for glory with Chris Hobson taking gold, King taking silver and Alan Knox taking bronze.
Professor Eric Saunders, OBE Chairman of Sport in Northern Ireland said it was an overwhelming success for the team.
"To take gold, silver and bronze is an amazing achievement and I would like to congratulate these young squad members and indeed the rest of the squad on their great success at the weekend," said Professor Saunders.
"The whole team are great ambassadors and have done us extremely proud," he said.
There were other individual successes for Northern Ireland including Kevin Quinn who came first in the Grand Masters Short final, Johnny Bingham was fourth in the Open Long final, Richard Hobson came fourth in the Masters Long final, Erica Chisholm fourth in the Women's Long Final, and Chris Hobson who also came fourth in the Junior Short final.
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Weather for Derry
Friday 25 May 2012
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