When Tom Rogan rocketed by I managed to catch his wash for a few metres but trying to keep up with someone so fast took it out of me, and although Rob was now behind me I
expected he would catch up as I was getting my breathe back. I pushed on for the next kilometre expecting he would draw level but as I turned the corner at Fishmarket Reserve it was young Jeremy Alderson who started to pass. I knew Jeremy was fast as he is going to race in an Asian Sprint Regatta next week so I expected him to fly by, however when he came by he wasn’t powering away roo strong and I was able to keep up with him quite comfortably. Then another young paddler caught up and that was
it, they were gone.
Josh and Brendan were the first paddlers in a K2 on the return leg, a little later Luke Dooley was surrounded by 2 K2s and 2 K1s.
I turned at Barkers Bridge being the first old paddler and wondering why. Don’t get me wrong I was pretty happy being in front but I knew I couldn’t let my guard down. All the paddlers in front were too far away for me to be inspired to catch them up so I just had to work alone and try to keep the pressure on hoping my competition stayed behind. Another 3 kilometres went by and I was
still alone. There have been few, if any races this year that I haven’t had a paddler close by, either to keep up with or to catch up with, so I was wondering if I was putting in enough power to keep ahead.
I could see a boat behind catching up but I didn’t know who it was. I was getting
a little worried as it could have been one of my competitors. When the ski eventually caught up, just before Pickering Park, about 2 kms from the finish I saw that it was Bruce McWhirter. That wasn’t so bad as he was younger and a faster paddler than me but he had brought John Dinucci with him and John was the same age and in the same class as me so that wasn’t so good.