David Rodríguez Dorado, Carolina Massagues and Álvaro Rodríguez Rica, Regional Winter Champions in Madrid (Spain)

Photo: Escuela Piragüismo Aranjuez

On a cool but sunny morning in Aranjuez, the river Tajo was the scenario of the Winter Regional Championships of Madrid, held again after not being competed 2013. Three hours of competitions made enjoy the spectators who came to the facilities of the Aranjuez Canoeing School, with five different batches for the different categories.

It started with the U16 Men K1, always one of the most crowded categories. Nice fight in the lead between Víctor Pardo (Cuenca), Martín Erpén (Aranjuez) and Raúl de la Peña (Alberche Kayak) after getting rid at mid-race of the foruth paddler in the group, Carlos Alonso (Aranjuez). Finally, very tight sprint in which the order was Pardo, Erpén and de la Peña, thus resulting Martín Erpén regional champion, as Victor Pardo club belongs to Castilla-La Mancha region (tehy competed with special invitation).

Second batch was for the Masters. Brilliant start for the components of the Madrileño Ciencias Club, where Víctor Aller took the initiative. After this humble reporter made a deep dig into the news, Ismael Plaza (Alberche) was slowly coming back to get into the front bunch. At the first turn, 1,500 meters, he pushed hard and only Víctor Aller could stand the pace. A second group was led then by Javier Melús (Aranjuez) with Joaquín Cuevas (Ciencias), Miguel Granados (Ciencias) and Jesus Gómez (Aranjuez) .Finally, Melús and Cuevas pulled away from their rivals, although Plaza and Aller were already unreachable. Victory fro Plaza, but Aller also took gold in masters B category (+45). Behind, Melús beated Cuevas, achieving both silver in their categories. Bronze medals went to Granados in Masters A and Javier Gómez (Ciencias) in Masters B.

The third batch corresponded to all categories of Kayak Women. Large participation, thanks to the group of paddlers from the invited team of Cuenca. Very pleasant surprise about the performance of the very young Arantxa Toledo (Cuenca), who at just 15 years old she leaded the race for almost half of the course and disputed the sprint to the last meter with Carolina Massagues (Club Canal Getafe), absolute winner and gold in U23 category. In the same group arrived Isabel López (Cuenca) as junior winner and Mercedes Cobos (Aranjuez), winner in senior category. In junior and U16, regional gold medals went to Irene Martin in Juniors (Aranjuez), Lidia Herrero (Alberche, U16 A) and María Hernández (Aranjuez, U16 B).

Then came the time for the C1s. After several clashes in the narrow start, the local canoeists, which were more than half of the contestants, took the initiative. However, it was not long before Álvaro Rodríguez Rica (Ciencias) and José Óscar Osma (Cuenca) overtook them to command the race. Behind was coming back Alan Ávila (RCN Palma - La Caixa OS) and Noel Domínguez (Kayak Alberche) who at just 15 years old also left a good feeling and managed to get a very good fifth place overall within one minute of senior winner, Álvaro R. Rica. Osma came second and David Úrsula (Aranjuez) came third and won U23 gold medal. The junior winner was Imanol Martínez (Aranjuez).

Finally, the most spected race with seniors, U23 and juniors in the same start. Obviously, there was not much room and there were several encounters with some occasional capsize. The locals, good knowers of the course, made ​​a brilliant start from the first strokes and a made a diamond with Adrián Martín leading, followed by David R. Dorado, David Martín and junior Samuel Saavedra, while David Portela, recent new member of Aranjuez club, commanded the second group.

The four of them worked together perfectly. although on the last lap Dorado took the initiative and forced the pace to the point where only Adrián Martín could follow him. Dorado came first at the sprint, Adrián Martín was second and winner in U23. Fifteen seconds later, David Martín beated Saavedra, claiming U23 silver and junior gold, respectively. Portela was silver in Senior and Marcos López (Aranjuez) in juniors. The bronzes went to Jorge Rodríguez (Aranjuez) in senior, Mikelats Ardanaz (Alberche) in U23 and Julián Neira (Alberche) in juniors.

Special mention for Paracanoe participants, who inaugurated this discipline in the Regional Championships in Madrid. Vladimir Máximo Vieira (Piraguamadrid) and Adrián Martínez (Aranjuez) completed the course in their adapted boats achieved gold and silver in that order.

By teams, the final results were Aranjuez in gold, Alberche in silver and Ciencias in bronze.

In this link you can see all the results.