DCU Clean up at Canoeing Intervarsities
24 February 2005

Last weekend's canoeing intervarsities hosted by Queen's University Belfast proved to be a resounding success for the DCU side. The defending champions were up against some stiff competition this year suffering the loss of a number of their stronger paddlers who had graduated and were no longer eligible to compete, and with other clubs fielding very strong teams unchanged from previous years. This proved to be no setback for the DCU squad, rather it gave a chance for some of the younger talent to move up the ranks and prove their worth in all disciplines, ultimately allowing the DCU side to walk away with the varsities trophy with ease.

vFriday night saw the polo competition being played in the comfort of the Queen's sports complex pool. The first match was against the home side Queen's who had brought along a sizeable cheering squad. The DCU team went out undeterred and showed the crowd just what we're made of, the final score DCU 14 Queens 1. This game marked an intervarsities debut for our new goalkeeper Ronan O' Hart who did himself proud, despite the pressure of the competition. After beating our Dublin rivals Trinity in the semi finals it was on to the finals against Maynooth University Canoeing and Kayaking, or MUCK for short. Despite the name they were far from a weak team, fielding a number of current and former National team players. But with plenty of National team experience on the DCU side as well the game could have gone either way. After a very tight first half the DCU side pulled away with a clear lead in the second half finishing DCU 4 MUCK 1.

No rest for the wicked on Saturday morning it was an early start for the whitewater race. The team rose early and piled onto the bus to go to the river Blackwater where the 3km race over waterfalls and rapids was to be run. One of the first teams to run the race the DCU team raised the bar setting a time of 9 minutes flat to complete the course. This time proved too much for other teams to with Trinity the only other team to break 10 mins over the course, but only just so once again DCU take the gold.

With yet more paddling to be done the team jumped back on the bus to take them back to Belfast for the long distance event on the river Lagan that afternoon. With 6 classes in this event (depending on the type of boat paddled) it is a truly multidisciplinary event which can make or break a club's bid for the overall trophy. DCU entered in all 6 categories and thanks to some tactical reshuffling of the teams to ensure a strong side in each category managed to win at least 1 medal in every category. Pauline Griffin 1st place women's fiberglass class, Ronan O' Hart 2nd place men's fibreglass class, Irene Hughes 2nd place women's GP plastic class, Stephen Lee and Louis Kelleher 2nd place K2, and Peter Maxwell and John Judge 1st place in the open Canadian canoe class.

At this stage the varsities cup had become pretty much a 2 horse race, with DCU and Trinity out in front and with DCU the clear leader. But the competition wasn't over yet, the final event, rodeo/freestyle, was yet to come and a strong performance here could swing the competition either way.

The final test of our skills came on Sunday morning at the rodeo/freestyle event. Rodeo is a technical discipline where competitors perform tricks in their boats, earning them points for the degree of difficulty, the range of moves performed, and the originality of the moves. Again our paddlers did us proud, enduring icy cold conditions (and the morning after the night before) to throw themselves about the river like acrobats, clocking up plenty of points. After the heats, we had 3 of our team named as finalists, Ronan O' Hart, Irene Hughes and Pauline Griffin. A special mention to Ronan here as he scored more points in the heats than Irish rodeo team paddler Moe Kelleher, who is currently ranked 6th in the World, quite an achievement for anyone, let alone someone competing in this event for the first time. Individually, Irene finished second, Pauline third and Ronan fourth in the finals, this meant that as a tam DCU had finished third in the rodeo.

With yet another good finish and a handful of medals in the bag DCU had blown the opposition out of the water extending our already sizeable lead winning the Canoeing Varsities Trophy for the second year running and our third time overall.

Also outside of the competition itself Irene Hughes won the Niamh Tomkins award. Niamh Tomkins was an Irish paddler who died tragicly a number of years back at the world rodeo championships. A few years ago her family sponsored a perpetual trophy in her name to be awarded at the Varsities to a female competitor who was deemed to have given her all and made a push for women in the sport through taking part and actively encouraging other female competitors. Irene was a shining beacon of this sentiment throughout the whole series of events and really struck a blow for the girls in what many feel is a male dominated sport. The award is well deserved and we're very proud of her achievement.

Roll on next year and the hat trick