Intervarsities 2011

By Matt

UCD returned from Cork in a triumphant 6th place in the 2011 Kayak Intervarsities, hosted by UCC & CIT. The guys from Cork hosted a great event this year, and the skills were all on show from 12 colleges from around the country.

Polo was the first event of the weekend on Friday morning. Because of high water levels on the River Lee, the polo was moved to the National Rowing Centre; we weren’t complaining, though, with hot showers and changing rooms there waiting for us! UCD’s polo team put in two brave performances in one of the toughest groups of the competition – facing NUIG and Dublin neighbours Trinity – but were knocked out in the group stages, after losing twice. Trinity went on to finish 2nd in the polo, losing in the final to GMIT.

Bright and early Saturday morning, the Whitewater race took place on the Upper Bandon. UCD’s team of Karen Vejsbjerg, Nuala McAuley and myself hopped on the coach at the ungodly hour of 8am to get to the river. The race was on a great little stretch of Grade 3 whitewater. UCD finished in 4th place, with UCC taking 1st, UL finishing 2nd and DCU settling for 3rd – just 3 seconds ahead of UCD!

Straight after the Whitewater was the Long Distance at the National Rowing Centre.

Long Distance competitors hopping on

UCD was represented well in the General Purpose class, the Canadian Canoe class (by Eoghan O’Riordain, Leighton Hoban and Jer “third wheel” Dunn), the Duo class (Lucy Bofin and Joe Fitzpatrick) and the High Performance class (Nuala McAuley & Matt Flood).

Spot the Santa

Livia T, Micheal H & Cathal "Ho Ho Ho" Finch

Leighton loves his Cheese Puffs

To finish up the weekend, the Rodeo took place on Sunday morning at the Cork Sluice on the Lee. Difficult freestyle conditions, i.e. the feature was not very friendly, meant that the Rodeo was a low-scoring affair.

I totally meant to do that...

Nuala "game face" McAuley

Simon "Raven"

Maryanne "flying squirrel" Doyle

UCD’s team of myself, Simon Rowan, Nuala McAuley and Maryanne Doyle put in a strong performance to finish in 5th. Local boys UCC took the gold, UL finished 2nd and Trinity came 3rd.

For the second year in a row, UL Kayak Club took the Varsities trophy home to Limerick. As soon as all the final results get posted up, I’ll attach a link to them. Big thanks to UCC and CIT for hosting a great weekend! Congrats to ULKC for their win. Thanks very much to UCD’s Philip Candon for the photos. Now to start planning for Varsities 2012, to be hosted by GMIT.

Wacko on the Jacko next weekend! We’ll hopefully post up a little something on it next week.