DCUCanoe.ie

DCU are the Kayak intervarsities champions for 2009! Well done to everyone who took part!

This years varsities were hosted by UCD Canoe club. Friday night saw polo in Kilcock. The squad of Carly McCourt, Ken Hynes, Ashling Conway, Eoin Cleary, Sean Marchetti, Len Kelleher and Stephen Quinn started brightly with a comprehensive win over GMIT Castlebar. Next up came Trinity in the quater final. Unfortunately for us Trinity proved very strong and despite long periods of pressure we were unable to break them down and ended up losing 2-0. Trinity went on to win the polo event beating hot favorites MUCK (Maynooth) in extra time in the final.

Polo squad from left to right, Carly McCourt, Len Kelleher, Sean Marchetti, Ken Hynes, Stephen Quinn. Subs- Eoin Cleary, Ashling Conway

Saturday Morning brought the long distance race at Salmon Leap Canoe Club. This event brought plenty of sucess for DCU with Victory in Womens K1 (Jenny Egan), 2nd in Mens K1 (Sean Marchetti) and Womens GP (Ashling Conway) other top 10 positions included 5th in Mens GP (Ken Hynes), 6th in Mens HP (Len Kelleher), 6th in Mens GP (Felix McMahon) and 9th in Mens HP (Ray Mullooly). Eoin Cleary and Carly McCourt also had a top 10 finish in the canadian race.

After that it was on to Castletown Rapids to defend the "Dee cup" for the Whitewater Race which we had won last year in UL's Intervarsities, and defend it we did with blistering times from Sean Marchetti, Len Kelleher, Ken Hynes and Ashling Conway in the Downriver and GP time trials and Eoin Cleary and Carly McCourt in the Canadian class. A particular well done to Ashling here who steeped in at the last minute to paddle a Wavehopper for the first time in a downriver race!

Sean Marchetti preparing for the Downriver race.

Sunday morning brought with it the after effects of Saturday night as well as the early start at the Sluice in Lucan for the first Slalom race at varsities in several years. Our team of Stephen Quinn, Ken Hynes, Len Kelleher and Aisling Doherty had 4 good runs, (Aisling getting 3rd in the womens race) and overall victory in the event left us in a strong position going into the rodeo.

Ken Hynes in the Slalom race.

The Rodeo was the final event of the varsities and our team of Stephen Quinn, Ken Hynes, Len Kelleher and Aisling Doherty started with a "freestyle through the rapid" competition to seed the participants into expert and sport classes. Unsurprisingly Len Made it to the final expert heat and ended up being piped to 2nd by his brother Moe (ITB). Much more surprisingly I made it there too and all that combined with strong runs by Stephen and Aisling, we were in a good position heading to the Presentation.

Len riping it up in the Rodeo.

However the drama was not over yet as a mistake emerged in the compiling of the long distance results leading to the final results being delayed. On Friday it was announced we had won only for it to be withdrawn after more mistakes had been found. finally our win was confirmed on Sunday.

Congrats to all who took part, bring on Galway 2010!