Two local canoe/kayakers and members of Wyedean Canoe Club, were selected to compete for GB in the European Canoe Association International Junior Cup, against paddlers from all over the world, including the USA and New Zealand.

Felix Newey, from Brampton Abbotts and David Mitchell, from Pengethley, both attend John Kyrle High School.

The first race was at Augsburg, Germany on June 23rd/24th. This is a man-made Slalom Course, built for the 1972 Munich Olympics and is still used for top Internationals today. There were some 480 competitors and you need to qualify to the finals from first Runs. In the K1 Under 14, Felix Newey qualified and then finished 23rd in the final. David Mitchell, in the Under 16 C1 [Canadian Single] class, also qualified and finished an excellent 8th place.

The next event was on June 25th/26th at Flattach in the Austrian Mountains on a natural river course. Once again they qualified for the finals and Felix improved his result finishing 18th and David finished 8th again.

Felix returned home for school but David travelled on to the next race at Bratislava, Slovakia. Here, the course has been built behind a large dam on the Danube River. The rapids are very big and demanding and David had some excellent racing, but due to a penalty, he did not make the finals.

The two will next travel to the French Alps in August for a training camp before heading to Scotland for a home race on August 25th/26th.