Those of you interested in racing, we now have a draft 2020 racing calendar. Time to plan family holidays! Basically, there are 40 races, across the disciplines of Sprint, flat water Marathon, descent Marathon and sea Marathon. You are capable to doing each and all of these disciplines.
We know about the Linlithgow Time Trials Dec 15th, Jan 12th, Feb 9th and March 8th. Here’s a quick description of what else is in the 2020 draft Scottish Kayak Racing calendar.
SPRINT – The UK National Sprint Regattas are held in Nottingham and have a minimum entry standard, and there will be 5 of them in 2020, the first being March 28th/29th. The first Scottish Sprint Regatta is the LKR Regatta on Linlithgow Loch May 16th, and there are 3 more Sprint Regattas in Scotland culminating in the Scottish Championships on August 29th.
MARATHON -Other than the UK National Marathon Championships in Reading on July 11th/12th in Reading (based on age groups), Kayak Marathon races are all based on a gender neutral divisional system of 9 adult divisions. We all start in Division 9 (U12s in Div 10) and are given promotion to higher divisions by a UK national body based on our recent divisional race results. Divisions 10 to 7 race a ‘mini’ course, 6 to 4 race a ‘short’ course, and divisions 3 to 1 race a longer course.
Most Marathon races are listed as “Hasler Qualifiers” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hasler_Series) leading to one UK “Hasler” Final which in 2020 is October 4th in Richmond, London. The first “HQ” race in Scotland is May 10th and is the Linlithgow Marathon from Ratho to The Basin for the ‘long’ course with out & back courses based at Linlithgow for the other divisions.
DESCENT – There are also Scottish “descent” marathon races; literally racing down a moderately flowing river usually in racing boats. The first of these is the Spey on May 3rd, and descent races are not always Hasler Qualifiers.
Next, you know about the LKR Summer Series 10,000m races on Linlithgow Loch. The first of those is May 7th and there are 5 of them stretching until September 10th.
SEA – There are also a humber of marathon races on the sea, raced in suitable boats (such as ocean ski). Other than multiple international races the first Scottish instance of these is July 25th in Nairn.
A highlight of each season is Sottish Racing Week, with 5 races in one week starting August 9th in places including Glasgow, Linlithgow and Perth.
One particular highlight is also the World Masters Marathon Championships (entries based on age bands) and 2020 is in Norway. Several LKR paddlers will be going. Will you be ready for that?
TIME TO PREPARE – In the 2020 draft Scottish Racing Calendar there are 40 opportunities to enter races. Some Scottish paddlers will enter them all, and more in Europe and elsewhere.
Look out for links to the published Scottish Racing Calendar – Coming Soon.
