Victorian Schools Championships 1st / 2nd September

Another fantastic weekend in Melbourne and another great Victorian Schools Championships. Over 160 paddlers from 16 schools took part in the Downriver event on the Saturday and the Slalom on the Sunday.

The Downriver event suffered from a lack of water in the river and there were many ÔscrapedÕ boats and  tired paddlers as a result. The slalom on the Sunday suffered from a similar lack of water but a bit of judicious river bed modification and a  thoughtful course set by Mark Nicholds provided a challenge, especially to some of the less experienced paddlers.

Amongst many outstanding performances were those from Jaxon Merritt (16), Tim Hobbs (16) and Al Anderson (15) who had the three fastest times in the boys K1. Emily Fegan (17) in the girls K1, Richard Merjan (O) in the C1 and Tom Greaves and Talis Svarcs who streeted the field in the C2.

Bendigo Combined Schools were worthy winners, for the first time, of the Boldiston Trophy for schools with less than 10 paddlers. Ivanhoe Girls Grammar School were the champion girls team and also took out the Danielle Woodward award for mid sized schools. Ivanhoe Grammar School won the boys school award and were also the overall champion school. A special mention is due to to Eltham College who entered 20 paddlers into the competition and gave IGGS a run for their money in the mid sized schools category.

Many of the paddlers, some as young as 9, had not taken part in the event before and there were also many schools that have not been represented previously. The 12 and 13 year old classes were the most hotly contested and this is a very healthy sign for our sport.