Isabel Neilson reports that the Mercantile Kayak Club has had an extremely successful season, in both the sprint and marathon disciplines. Our sprint season ended with the National Championships in late April, where our athletes brought the Mercs spirit and came home with more than a few medals: Adam Holovics achieved a bronze medal in the open men’s K1 500, and gold medals in the open men’s K2 500 and K1 200 races. Noah Cameron took home a gold medal for his open men’s K2 500 race with Adam and a silver in the K1 200, and Noah along with Chris Smith nabbed a bronze in the open men’s K2 200 race. Finally Adam, Noah, Chris and Justin Quill took home the gold medal for the open men’s K4 500 race, giving Mercs the national title in this race for the very first time. All our competing athletes did extremely well at this competition, with Nathan Jones and Lachlan Dal Sasso both making Finals in multiple races.

Adam Holovics & Noah Cameron

Although our Mercs girls couldn’t attend the National Champs, they had a lot of success at the GP2 sprint regatta in Penrith just a few weeks prior, making multiple finals and taking home a bronze medal in the open women’s K4 500 race, Mercs’ first podium finish in this event.

Finally, Rebecca Mann and Hannah Scott competed in the Canoe Marathon National Championships back in April, to become national champions in both the K1 (Rebecca Mann) and K2 (both) long course events, and taking home medals in all events. They will compete in the Canoe Marathon World Championships from September 29th to October 2nd in Ponte de Lima, Portugal, and there will be a viewing party for their races (date to be determined) at Mercs, with anyone welcome to join. We wish our girls the best of luck representing Mercs and Australia!

Rebecca Mann & Hannah Scott