Moriston River Race 2014

This weekend the 3^rd annual Moriston River Race took place.  106 paddlers descend upon Glen Moriston to battle it out on the 600m, grade 4 course in a stunning setting.

Racers applying their games faces at the top

Everyone gets two runs down and the fastest twenty racers qualify to fight it out in the final.

With such a strong field this year, I was just hoping to make it into the final and anything after that would be a bonus.

What an awesome setting.

The atmosphere was great for the whole event with spectators cheering all the paddlers at the final bend from the rock amphitheatre.

My first two runs went OK with a few mistakes, meaning I qualified as 19^th into the final.  The pressure was then off as things could only get better.

Getting the top drop dialed.

With a more relaxed attitude, I really enjoyed the run, with only one mistake; it was an incredibly exciting and enjoyable final.

Tim Burne storming through sticky hole

It was fantastic watching the final fastest paddlers finish all with supper clean line and driving the boat right to the end.  Massive congratulations to Callum Strong for winning the open event and to Sandra Hyslop for talking the female prize.

Dan enjoying the race with hand paddles amidst all the spectators

The evening entertainment was spot on.  Beers, prize giving, then back to the campsite for a fire.  It was great to catch up with so many paddlers and awesome to meet lots of new ones.  As a nice little surprise, I won the “IR Sportsmanship award” which was the cherry on the top for me.

Massive thanks to James, Giles and team for the planning and race day work and IR for the “Sportsmanship award”

Some very slow moving people the morning after

Huge congratulations to all the winners in a super competitive year.

Open winner - Callum Strong

Fastest female – Sandra Hyslop

Fastest junior – Ben Johnson

Fastest single lap – Ed Smith