It’s been a busy two weeks for the local canoe club Erne Paddlers with members competing successfully at home and abroad, including Darragh Murphy winning a NI Senior title and Declan Burns clinching gold at the Irish Sprint Canoe Championships while Burns and Gerry Murphy clinched victories at the British National Regatta.

The competition started on August 30 at the Irish Sprint Canoe Championships held on the newly built rowing and canoeing regatta course in Lough Rynn, Co Leitrim (built by local company Deane Public Works).

There was great success for the younger members of the club with Jamie Hogg and Finlay Harron just missing out on the medals in the under 12, 200m event. In the under 14, 200m event Jake Harron picked up his first canoe sprint medal with a third place and Mark Kells was fifth with very little between the top six finishers.

Darragh Murphy was unlucky to just miss out on a third position in the under 23 200m with two tenths of a second between third and fourth. Declan Burns along with his partner Noel O’Connell from Kicullen Canoe Club over came the windy and choppy conditions to secure a championship gold medal in the K2, 200m event.

On Sunday August 31 Lough Rynn was again the venue but this time it was for the Salmon Leap Marathon Race.

Again the younger members of the club excelled with Aimee Fitzpatrick taking gold in the junior novice race and Aisling Maguire coming in second over the 2km distance.

In the junior boys section Jamie Hogg and James Maguire paddled well but just missed out on the medals.

In the 10km senior race Darragh Murphy didn’t let the disappointment of Saturday get in the way of his performance. He held second place until the portage and took the lead shortly after re-entering the water and held this position to emerge as victor with his dad Gerry coming in third and 1st Master and Trevor Foster fourth in the Masters category. In the women’s event Sonja Cassidy had an excellent return to competition with a second place.

The weekend of September 6-7 saw the club travel to Nottingham to take part in the British National Regatta. Held in glorious weather and little wind, the conditions where perfect for kayak racing. First to race was Gerry Murphy in the masters K1, 1000m. Gerry lead the race from start to finish and held on to win by 2 tenths of a second. Next up was Darragh Murphy in the mens K1, 200m, Darragh had a slow start out of the starting buckets and was chasing the race from there on. A really hard push in the last 50m saw him qualify for the final. In the final the hard work to catch up in the heat had taken its toll as Darragh led the race until the last 50m where he was caught to finish a disappointing sixth. Last up on the Saturday was Declan Burns and Gerry Murphy in the mens K1 200m and with both winning their heats and an interesting final in prospect. In the final it was Declan who came to the fore leading the race from start to finish and Gerry finishing sixth.

First to race on Sunday was Declan and Gerry but this time they where as a team in the K2, 200m. A really exciting race saw them finish second loosing out by four hundredths of a second. Next up Darragh was paired with Jordan Calder from Belfast Canoe Club as part of the Canoe Association of Northern Ireland development squad and the pair had excellent results with silver medals in the men’s K2, 200m and men’s K2, 500m races. With results like this in their first competition and only second time together this pairing could have a successful future. The last race of the day saw Declan and Gerry again compete, this time in the masters 500m race. With Gerry the 1000m specialist and Declan the 200m master an exciting race was expected. From the start it was anybody’s race, with Gerry gaining a slight lead to hold on for a half second win over Declan in second.

Sunday, September 14 saw the club split it’s resources with the younger members and Darragh Murphy and Trevor Foster travelling to Portaferry on the river Bann to take part in the NI Senior and Schools Marathon Championships. While Gerry Murphy and Sonja Cassidy travelled to the river Corrib in Galway city to take part in the City of the Tribes Marathon race. On the Bann it was another great day with wins for Jamie Hogg in the under 12 race and Aimee Fitzpatrick winning the girls under 14. Both of these athletes excelled on the 3.5km course seeing off strong Belfast paddlers to win the provincial titles and they where justly rewarded for a hard summers training. In the senior race Darragh Murphy displayed that he has progressed to the senior ranks with a first Northern Ireland senior title after winning the NI Schools title in 2013 and 2014. Darragh controlled the race from start to finish and has now established himself as the top paddler in N Ireland in both sprint and marathon disciplines. On the River Corrib thinks didn’t go according to plan for Gerry Murphy with a swim while leading the race costing him valuable points in the Irish marathon series.

After bailing his boat and rejoining the race Gerry fought hard to gain back places but had to be content with fifth place and second master. Sonja Cassidy had another steady race to come in second in the ladies race.

The club now look forward to the next outing which will be the international Liffey Descent on October 4 and the last in the marathon series the Robertstown race on October 19.