Gent Marathon
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The first time
members of Maidstone have been to the Gent Marathon, in the Belgian town of
The race is held
on a great venue, starting on a sprint course, outside the clubhouse of the
local club, and moving on to canals which link with the same sprint course
and take paddlers around the town.
The whole route is easily followed by bike, and as we took two bikes
with us (Dean Jordan and Paul Newman), it was a simple matter to follow the
race and Aaron Jordan who was competing with the juniors.
Although Aaron
was competing for Maidstone CC, there was also a GB team of juniors
competing.
The start was on
the sprint course and paddlers had to complete a lap before moving on to the
canals. The start was as hectic
as usual, and although Aaron had a good start and was in the lead bunch
after 50 metres, he was badly cut up by one of the British team, who paddled
over his blades, causing a capsize in the very cold water.
He quickly made it to the bank, emptied and rejoined the race in last
place, determined to make up places.
A cold first lap,
where he overtook some back markers before the first portage outside the
clubhouse, was followed by an excellent and hard working paddle around the
canals. These were a little more
sheltered from the small breeze and allowed him to regain some body
temperature. With better
temperatures he worked even harder.
The second lap saw him catching up with many of the other paddlers
and he passed many of the GB team.
A loss of time
caused by the capsize, and energy from the cold water must have taken a toll
on his performance but he still managed to overtake the GB paddler who had
caused his capsize.
In all, a very
good performance, which, had he managed to stay in the lead group, would
have certainly resulted in a top place compared to the GB paddlers.
The atmosphere
after the race was excellent. A
marquee had been erected, where a barbecue served fantastic hot dog rolls,
and the beer in the clubhouse was typical Belgian, glasses to match the
beers. There were logs in the
clubhouse, and after wondering why they were there, one of the committee
challenged us to a game where 6” nails are hammered in to the logs, with the
last man (nail) standing, the winner.
We picked up the hammer, only to be told we used the hatchet blade on
the other side. Hitting the head
of a nail with an axe is not easy after a couple of Belgian beers.
Something for
Next year, DW and
other races permitting we propose to take a full team to