Two firsts at the Colligan!

There on Saturday what felt like the entire country converged on the river Colligan in Waterford for the biggest boater cross of the year. The week before the entries were maxed out and there was a few days solid rain so expectations for a day of carnage like last year were high. As is turned out someone must have held an umbrella over county Waterford for the week since the river was dog low but it probably wasnt such a bad thing since it meant everyone there was well capeable of making it down the river in one piece.

The race itself really couldnt have gone any better. I was competing in the team event with Neil Slevin and Oisin McHugh and we had a great run, everything went to plan and we put in a really fast time. I havnt seen the times yet, still waiting for them to be posted up but I think we were challenging some of the mens expert times!

The individual races were a similar story, myself and Oisin came 1st and 2nd in our first round race, and me and Neil did the same in our semi final. Oisin walked through his semi too so it was the three of us in the final against another lad from Wicklow. I made a brilliant start, getting through the first two rocks in first place and opening up a big lead as the others got in a scrap to decide the other places. It finished up 1, 2, 3 for St Pauls scouts as Neil finished up second and Oisin paddled brilliantly to take third.

At the prize giving we were still waiting for the results of the team race. We knew we had done well but we didnt know if we had done it faster than the other teams from Wicklow. Soon enough though we found out that we had won that too, delighted! Even better was the prizes, savage Peak Uk creek cags and throw ropes donated by Kipper and Brian at Total Experience. We tried them out on the Glens the next day, they really are the job! Just in time too, since my old cag was held together with duct tape and needed to be replaced before winter hit proper! We also got a really cool trophy, in memory of a paddler who passed away during the year, so RIP.