WAIS Paddlers in Fine Form

Published On: 4 December 2008

Reece Baker has continued his strong form

With the summer racing season in full swing, WAIS athletes have continued to show excellent early season form with positive results in the Bay2Beach classic and the Dubai Shamaal ocean race.

Reece Baker (Marmion) blitzed the field to win the annual Bay2Beach Classic over 17km from Mosman Bay through Fremantle Harbour finishing at Cottesloe Beach. Baker recorded a very quick time of one hour 12 min and 33 seconds.

Baker got a good start sitting on youngster Brendan Rice’s wash for the first 1000m before unleashing a powerful burn that split the lead pack. Baker was able to grind away up front opening up a commanding lead and was able to cruise the second half of the race.

Daniel Bowker (Kingsley) achieved his best ever result coming in a credible fourth place in 1:15.07.

Baker along with Lee Davey (Myaree), Jesse Phillips (Nollamara) and Steve Bird (Mount Pleasant) are all currently at the National Senior Squad training Camp in Adelaide leading into the first Grand Prix of the season from 12 to 14 December.

Gold Coast based Rachel Simper is currently in town training with partner Alana Nicholls (Dianella) in the K2 and will line up for the third regatta of the season this weekend at Champion Lakes.

With most of the top men away attention will go to the women to see who has the best early season form. Lisa Oldenhof (Hilton) having recently resumed trainingwill race for the first time since her medal winning performance in Beijing.

Brendan Sarson’s (Balcatta) brave bid to qualifiy for the Kellogs Nutri Grain Ironman Series did not succeed. In what was always going to be a tough ask following a serious foot infection the newly converted kayaker and fifth ranked ironman nationally will now wait to see if he is one of the lucky recipients of a wild card entry for the series final in January and February.

Sarson overcame the disappointment of missing out on the Ironman Series by claiming a top 20 finish at the Dubai Shamaal surfski race, the richest ocean race in the world.

Raced over 24km Sarson maintained a strong tempo to finish 14th in quality field that included 128 paddlers, including 2008 Beijing gold medal winner Ken Wallace who finished 18th.

The race was taken out by Australian Tim Jacobs in a time of 1:42.39. Sarson finished a further six minutes behind.