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Devizes To Westminster A Paddler's Perspective |
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Devizes to Westminster 2000 Abandonned
River conditions force premature end of race.
Latest update: 28-April-2000 (latest addition usually at bottom of page)
As reported on Ceefax (initally page 110, now page 122 at 21:04 of April 22nd), some time in the early hours of Easter Saturday the 53rd running of the Devizes to Westminster canoe race became the first to be abandonned. Ceefax (and apparently also Radio 2) reported that in one incident at Windsor, two canoeists were left stranded. There were at least six capsizes due to the extreme weather conditions. Very few details are available at this point, but we expect an official announcement soon. (Now available at http://www.dwrace.org.uk/cancellation.html. (N.B. This site has no official connection with the race.) When the race was stopped, no crew had yet finished, but some reached Teddington before being pulled out.
After months of planning and training, this anti-climax is a huge disappointment to all involved in the race; paddlers, supporters and organisers. I hope that paddlers won't give the organisers unnecessary stick for this decision; presumably it is one that was forced upon them by the events. The organisers work harder than anyone to make DW a success and to resist the nannying tendancies of the various authorities; but when the emergency services are being called to make a number of early morning rescues of capsized paddlers, and when the environment agency has issued a red alert (meaning that all shipping is advised to leave the water), it may have been the case that to not stop the race would have damaged the chances of retaining permission to run the race in future years.
The following has appeared on the official website:
It was after considerable deliberation that the decision was taken to cancel the race and we are all aware of the disappointment that this has caused for paddlers, support crews and race staff alike, all of whom had put a great deal of preparation into this event.
The Chief Official will be writing to all competitors soon but would like to take this opportunity to thank everybody involved over the weekend for their support.
It appears that a number of crews decided to continue paddling outside of the race, making it to Westminster; of these 414 Steve Baker and Duncan Capps beat the 1979 DW record - read about it in Duncan's own words in the discussion area. Also 139 Scott Kemper and Owen Peake posted a time in the junior class possibly only ever bettered once: 14:35:56. These times are of course unofficial and won't appear in any of the records. Should they? Or did these crews selfishly jeopardise the future of the event? Or should these crews be commended for their achievement and for proving that the conditions didn't present a problem to those competent enough?
Amongst the questions still to be properly answered are:
- What effect will this precedent have on future years?
- What impact will the cancellation have on future entries from top class competitors?
- What exactly were the circumstances of the cancellation? In particular, why was the normal rule that all competitors are entirely responsible for their own safety and judgments overridden and all competitors stopped regardless of competence?
- What made the conditions different to those of 1998 and 1994 that meant that senior singles and junior doubles paddlers weren't allowed to start the next day when the night was over? Was there especial danger even in the daylight unlike that of previous years?
- Why did crews progress to Westminster and finish?
- Does the DW organisation have specific pre-decided conditions that must be fulfilled for cancellation; what are these criteria and were they carried out in this case?
