WWR Ctte. meeting 20th March 2006.

 

Present: John Ringwood, Willie Irwin, Keith McGuirk, Martin McCarthy

Apologies: Wesley Bourke

 

Agenda Items:

 

1.        Agenda Items

2.        Matters Arising

3.        Selection Issues

·         Confirmation of team and travel intentions

·         Team Manager

·         Expenses/payment, etc.

·         Eligibility of Foreign paddler

4.        Wrap up of domestic season

·         Perspectives

·         Championship

·         Last Race/development race

5.        Perspectives for next season

·         Date for issue of calendar

·         AGM

6.        AOB

 

 

 

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2. Matters arising:

 

Matters raised from review of previous meeting minutes – which had been approved already.

 

Contact has still to be made with Aisling ni Chuinn in relation to the payment for two cag-decks for Juniors who raced for Ireland in the World Cup 2005. Chairman to follow this up.

 

Training & Development: The planned women’s (and general) training weekend scheduled for the 25th & 26th March has had to be cancelled due to lack of interest from the paddlers. The weekend had been scheduled to suit the paddlers, but since then, several of them have confirmed that they are unavailable, leaving only one paddler interested.

 

Secretary to contact Wesley about the proposed flat-water training day in April. Date to be confirmed and schedule drawn up so that paddlers intending on participating can plan for the day (this must be confirmed by the 27th of March).

 

Equipment officer to arrange junior training days at WWKC in May, June and July.

 

The Ctte. intends to run a development race at WWKC sometime in April or May (try to coincide with another event on the Liffey, thus guaranteeing a flood). Suggested dates include:

22 April (Junior Race from Lucan to Palmerstown)

27 May (Junior Liffey Descent)

Perhaps there’s a Freestyle event at Sluice we could tie in with.

 

The excellent organisation of the Boyne WWR race by Brendan Devlin was noted. The provision of rescue, the securing of sponsorship and the prizegiving & food at the Newgrange Lodge Hostel was first class. This was topped by very good coverage of the race in the Drogheda Times, complete with photo from Mick Feeney.

 

 

 

3. Selection:

 

The paddlers who have been selected to represent Ireland at the International events this summer are as follows:

 

World Championships (Karlovy Vary, 12-17 June 2006):

Men’s K1: Jim Morrissey, Kevin Pierse, Vinny Pierse.

Women’s K1: Caoimhe ni Chuinn

C1: Tadhg McIntyre (sprint only – pending clarification on eligibility of Jan Vachta - see later)

C2: Tadhg McIntyre & Jan Vachta (pending clarification on eligibility – see later)

 

World Cups (races 1&2, Mezzana, Italy June 24, 25 and races 3,4 & 5, Lofer, Austria June 30, July 1 & 2)

Women’s K1: Caoimhe ni Chuinn

C1: Tadhg McIntyre

 

Team Manager: The position of Team Manager is to be advertised on WWRNews. The Ctte. will also contact Robert Duff, who acted as team manager for the World Championships in 2004 at Garmisch, to see if he would be interested in the post again. The secretary is to contact Robert Duff. The advert is to contain the wording from the WWR Racing constitution outlining the job requirements (important note – include the requirement to be able to drive and hold a drivers license). When a manager is appointed, the successful candidate will me presented with a letter of offer, which will explain in detail what is required of them and what their duties and responsibilities are.

 

The team manager will oversee the arrangement of team travel, etc. as per the WWR constitution and ordering of team gear.

 

The closing date for applications is 15th April.

 

Expenses: A letter is to be drawn up by the Secretary, following guidance sought by the treasurer from the ICU office in relation to the issue of allowable expenses for team competitors. This is to be prepared ASAP.

 

Eligibility of Jan Vachta to race for Ireland:

 

The Chairman contacted the Czech Federation seeking a release for Jan and they referred him to the ICF rules, which state that Jan would have required release from the Czech federation by Nov 2005. Jan's first race in Ireland was in Jan 2006, so the deadline had already passed.

 

The second option for eligibility (according to the ICF rules) relates to the amount of time Jan has spent in Ireland/his marital status. Jan has confirmed that he has lived in Ireland since Jan 2005 and is not married to an Irish woman so, from a strict interpretation of ICF rules, he is not eligible to race for Ireland.  The secretary has relayed this info to Jan.

 

However, the Chairman has recently been in contact with the ICF committee to seek a definitive judgement on this case and has received some feedback - which is as yet, not final or definitive. The Chairman is to pursue the matter with the ICF committee, in particular the chairman. Jan cannot be named as a team paddler until this situation is clarified.

 

The Secretary is to submit nominal entries for the World Champs 2006 and World Cups.

 

 

 

 

4. Wrap up of domestic season:

 

The following feelings in elation to the season just passed were expressed and recorded – for future input to planning the calendar for the upcoming season.

 

 

·         Try to tighten up on time – sometimes races start late and paddlers are complacent in completing practice runs, etc. This interferes with others participation and is unfair

·         3 out of the 4 present felt that there were too many events in the calendar – it was generally felt that it would be better to concentrate on running fewer, higher quality events. Aim for 10 events next season

·         Saturday sprint and Sunday classic events are felt to be a bad idea as the whole weekend is taken up

·         The Moy was not a good classic course as it was far too flat, although it was noted that it provided probably the only rough water navigable in the country at the time of the event on the sprint course. Unless there are local paddlers interested in competing, there is little point in holding events such a distance from the main paddler base.

·         Avoid lengthening the season in terms of number of races and duration of season

 

National Championship:

Although the Boyne results are not confirmed yet, the following people are likely to be confirmed as National WWR Racing Champions:

 

Men’s WWR K1: John Ringwood

Women’s WWR K1: Dympna Carville

C2. Joint winners: Keith McGuirk & Martin McCarthy, Jan Vachta & Tadhg McIntyre

C1: Tadhg McIntyre

 

The chairman will order the following national championship medals from MMI:

1 x MK1

1 x WK1

4 x MC2

1 x MC1

 

 

5. Perspectives for next season:

 

·         Start season in November (perhaps October for Junior race)

·         Finish with Boyne in March is a good idea – it was by far the best event this year

·         Shannon event at Castleconnell should be included in future seasons if possible

·         The Liffey series should be brought back – it is close to the biggest base of paddlers in Ireland. Run two races over one day – courses to be determined

·         Only a single sprint event (comprising 2 timed runs) should be held at Aghade, rather than two sprint events as was the case this year.

·         Eamon Devoy has asked that the Inny race be moved back to October to facilitate junior paddlers competing. The event would then be included in a Junior calendar. In contrast to this, race organiser Alex Stanley has stated his preference to hold the Inny event in Jan as that is when the best water is usually found on the river

 

The chairman is to try to draw up a race organiser’s guide.

 

Calendar to be discussed at a later date given the points discussed above. Plan to have calendar prepared by July to give plenty of time prior to Liffey Descent so that it can be included in Liffey Descent race packs, like was the case in previous years. It was felt that from previous years this was the best way of publicising the discipline.

 

AGM – date scheduled for 3rd November.

 

6. AOB:

 

Masters event at Karlovy Vary. Sean Martin has expressed an interest in competing at this. The Secretary is to enter him in the event. The Secretary is also to contact Sean Cahill about the event as it is felt he may be interested in competing.

 

No selection was held for the Masters representatives this year. The ctte. will investigate what happens in other countries for next year and the selection procedure is to be formalised for next year.

 

Tadhg McIntyre requested use of the WWR ctte. camera for the weekend of 25th & 26th March. The secretary is to contact him stating that the camera will be available for collection from the NUI Maynooth from 9.30 AM to 5.00 PM after Thursday 23rd March and must be handed back by Tuesday 28th March no later than 5.00 PM.

 

For all people wishing to use the Ctte. camera: it is to be used solely for the purpose of WWR racing or training.

 

Website: Wesley has stated that the new website is ready to go live. The secretary is to discuss with Welsey the requirement to have all existing material on the current website ported over onto the new one. The new site cannot go live until all material is ported across.

 

Next meeting: TBA.