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Competition News [Oct 2008]
WCA Club Championships
The object
of the club championships is to get clubs to participate in the various
canoe disciplines.
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Each club gets points for entering paddlers in events
and additional points can be gained for getting a top position in each
event. The events are organised by various clubs around Wales, Aberfan
are organising the canoe polo and white water racing events. There will
be a final event between the North and
South Wales
regions to find Wales’s top club! The first
event was sprint racing and was organised by Brecon Canoe Club and was
held at Brecon Promenade. We are pleased to say that Aberfan were able
to field a good number of paddlers, so had people in every class. With
the good results gained in each race we were top of the championship
table after this first event. |
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The second event was run by us at Taff Bargoed Lakes on the 26th.
This was a Canoe Polo competition of course! It had rained a lot the
previous night so we had to run the event with one pitch, plus it was
very cold! Despite all that, the event went well with 6 clubs fielding
teams in various categories. With strong Youth and Junior teams Bridgend
won the overall event and Aberfan came second.
The next
event will be a white water race on the Taff on the 9th of
November, Again this will be run by us. Anyone interested in competing
please speak to Paul or Tony. |
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| Canoe Polo |
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You may or may not have heard but we currently have 2 world champions
in our club!! The Canoe Polo World Championships were held in Canada this
summer. Zoë Anthony won gold with the Ladies team and Luke Morris won gold
and scored the winning goal for the U21 men’s team. This is the first time
the U21’s have won a gold medal and Luke played a key role in their victory.
Zoë’s gold adds to an already impressive haul of medals. Zoë already has 2
European bronze, 1 European Gold, 1 World Games Silver and Gold at the
worlds in Japan in 2004.
Videos of
both Canada finals can be found on
Youtube.
Read more ... |
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This season
Aberfan have entered 5 teams in the National League. We have 3 Open teams in
Divisions 2, 3 & 4 and this year we have 2 Ladies teams, one in Division 1
and a new B team in Division 2.
The Open B
team kicked things off with their first tournament being held in Luton on
the 4th of October. The night went reasonably well with the team
winning 2 games drawing 1 and loosing 1. This puts the team 3rd
after the first competition. The B Team players are Paul Lineham, Dave
Crocombe, Simon Broadhead, Nathan Littlewood, Claire Griffiths, Scott
Burbridge-Smith, Liz Ponting and Rob Warren.
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The Ladies
B team’s first competition was in
Stockport
on the 25th of October. This was the first time some of the
players had competed at a National League competition and were quite
nervous. However once the first whistle went all nerves were forgotten and
they started to enjoy themselves. The girls played very well against some
tough opposition. Out of the five games played that night they won 2, drew 1
and lost 2. This currently puts them 4th in the league but only 1
point behind the 2nd and 3rd placed teams. Well done
girls!!
The Ladies B
Team Players are Carys Powney, Jessica Peters, Katie Davies, Rhian
Griffiths, Louise Saxon, Bethan Littlewood and Claire Griffiths.
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Other News
Over the past
year or so we have been working to develop the canoeing facilities at the
Taff
Bargoed Lakes. Merthyr Council have been very supportive and in particular
Tony Gibbs the Parks Manager has been very helpful.
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So far we have
be given posts to set up 2 polo pitches. One pitch is a Training pitch set
up above the weirs and the other is a full competition pitch based in the
main weir pond. The posts will also allow us to set up Slalom Poles and it
is planned to run a slalom competition at the lakes next year.
We have
already used the new facilities to run Welsh League Polo competitions, Welsh
Polo Squad training, 2 one off polo invitation events and the Universities
Championships will be held there in February. Regular training also takes
place on a Tuesday evening.
There are
several other developments we are looking at to enhance the site. We already
have temporary flood lighting to enable the Tuesday sessions to continue
over the winter. We are currently looking into obtaining a Permanent Flood
Lighting system.
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There
are currently no changing facilities near the lakes, but funding has
recently been granted for a small toilet/changing facilities close to the
waterside. When we find out more about this we’ll let you know the details.
For
Sale
We have a number of items of club kit for sale. If you are
interested in Purchasing any of the items listed below, please see Sharron.
Blue Lycras
with Aberfan on sleeve £10
Red Lycras With club logo on sleeve
£10
Long sleeve thermal lycras £17
Blue Polo Shirt with club Logo £10
Reversible fleece jackets with club logo £22
Fleece pullover with club logo £12
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