IrishFreestyle

Clifden Rodeo 2006

The 3rd annual Clifden Rodeo took place this September and was the beginning of another exciting season for Irish Freestyle Kayaking.

The event kicked off with the first ever inflatable race. This fun element had everything from dingys to inflatable ships, rubberducks and whales racing from upstream through the hole to a point downstream of the hole.

Aodhan Hudson even had time to stop in the hole for an inspired backloop much to the delighted onlookers and still clawed back to win the race. Andy Quinn won the best inflatable with fully inflatable pirate ship.

After this it was straight onto the rodeo. With 30 competitors all fighting for the top spot we were very tight for time. So with 2 runs each and no final there was no margin for error. The eventual mens winner was Lenny Kelleher who stole the show with impressive kickflip entry moves and pure consistency in the hole. He was ahead of the field by an impressive 300 points with a top class performance.

There was a close fight for second and third place with Mark Leonard stealing it from Kilian Kelly by the smallest of margins.

Kate Harris won the ladies with consistent rides. Tim Harris won the junior class and sorry to announce this was his last time competing as a junior, watch out gentlemen!

Best Newcomer went to Stuart Hamilton well done to him.

 

Later that evening everyone headed to JConneeleys for some finger food and the Monty Python theme night. Watsername played a great set which revved up the crowd as Monty Python films were projected onto the wall. Dave Crerar and Louise Cleary won best male and female costume as Roman nobleman and the Black Knight.

High spirits continued until the wee hours and Dj Enda Shmenda finished up the entertainment. With all the excitement a bit of ingenious crowd surfing landed Watsername lead singer Conor Murray in behind the bar. This much delighted the bar staff! At this stage the party continued at various locations throughout Clifden.

 

All in all another successful year with strong competition but always the emphasis was on fun! A special thanks to all Judges, Scribes, Timekeepers and especially Enda Cleary for a lot of hard work!

 

Full results

 

Mens K1

 

 1 Leonard Kelleher   693.5

 

 2 Mark Leonard        379

 

 3 Killian Kelly          365.5

 

 4 Brian Cahill            337

 

 5 Neil Gibson            306

 

 6 Dave Crerar            298

 

 7 Tom Dunphy          225.5

 8 Cillian Delaney      198.5

 9 Mickey Barry         130.5

10 Shane Cronin           83

11 Alan Leonard           72

12 Peter OSullivan        67.5

13 Stuart Hamilton       52.5

14 Pierce Kennedy        32

15 Andrew Quinn          28 

16 Richie Nelson          17

17 Coran Kelly             15

18 Aodhan Hudson      14.5

19 Damian Kennedy       8.5

 

Ladies K1

 

1 Kate Harris               89.5

2 Jackie Ferguson        27.5

3 Jean Costello            11

4 Sinead O Donnell       5

5 Jenny Kilbride            1

 

Junior K1

 

1 Tim Harris                         140.5

2 Tomas O Donoghue            57

3  John O Rourke                   25

4  Conor Bredin                        6

5  Paul Lydon                           1.5

    Kevin  Niland                       1.5

 

Carpe Diem