Around the Island Race (Outrigger)

Open Unlimited

WORDS: AMY DE VERA | IMAGES: STANLEY LAM | MIKE LAW

On 12 November, seventeen crews paddled around Hong Kong Island for the annual Around the Island Outrigger Canoe Race. The warm weather on the day brought with it calm waters and smooth conditions for all racers. This, however, did not prevent the RHKYC Outrigger section crowning a few champions!

This year’s Club entry of seven teams set a record for the largest number of crews and paddlers entered by a single club in the race’s history.

RHKYC Outrigger’s remarkable results were as follows:

Champions of the Open Standard category (race time: 04:18:55); Arvind Rajan, Stuart Carroll, Seb McMurrich, Stephen Alley, Luis Segovia, Adam Fan, Victor Zhang, Dean Burrell led by Crew and Men’s Captain Duncan Smith - were the first crew to reach the finish line. “Definitely nothing ‘standard’ about these men”, words from their Crew Manager, Jilly Carroll.

Next in our Champion’s list, the Mixed Unlimited team (time: 04:02:29); Aya Asanuma, Clarissa McVey, Katya Lukyanets, Maud Duquesne, William Chalmers, David Best, Gianni Aprea, Justin Wong and Ken Wong led by Crew Captain Christina Park and Crew Manager Ryan Cheung who flawlessly dominated the start line by taking the lead from the start line.

Our lovely Wahine (time: 04:15:03); Francesca Zino, Clare, Baldwin, Clarissa Becker, Elena Kucherenko, Jo Royds-Jones, Michelle Lau and Amy de Vera led by Crew and Women’s Captain Martina Redaelli and

OUTRIGGER CONTACT

outrigger@rhkyc.org.hk

Crew Manager/Coach Melissa Davis. These ladies took on a whole new ATIR challenge by racing with only eight women (instead of the usual nine) meaning each of them was required to paddle longer sections of more than thirty kilometres each.

Last but not the least, the Open Unlimited category was represented by: Hamish McNicol, Doug Woodring, Florian Neto, Jess Kneble, Yverain Olivares, Zach Tuckwell, Philipp Chou, Kenniz Ng and led by Crew Captain Steve Taylor and Crew Manager/Coach Scott Dale. These gentlemen fought hard as they crossed the finish line ahead of all the other teams in their category. However, a bittersweet ending as they had to digest a “DNF” result due to an unfortunate mistake.

A big Congratulations of course goes to the rest of our RHKYC Outrigger crews: – Open Standard – 2nd runner-up (Crew Captain Andrew Simmonds and

Manager Bonita Leung).

– Mixed Standard Crews: 1st runner-up for Crew Captain Wallis Chan and Manager Charlie Lam, and 2nd runner-up for Crew Captain Rob

Serjeant and Manager John Trotter.

All in all, another successful event bringing the Hong Kong Paddling community together which wouldn’t have happened without the hard work and dedication of the ATIR 2022 organising committee and volunteers!

Thank you all!