By Martin Cleary
The Rideau Canoe Club won yet another Canadian canoe-kayak sprint club championship on Friday, but its athletes didn’t have to lift a paddle or slip into their tight boats this week.
The paddlers did all that hard and productive work late last summer in Dartmouth, N.S. It just took a long time to certify the final overall club point results, which were challenged for their accuracy.
The end result, which was finalized earlier this week, was not just one champion, Maskwa Aquatic Club, but rather two, as Rideau was invited to the top step of the podium, following lengthy three-way discussions.
After almost a six-month deliberation, Canoe Kayak Canada announced on Friday that Rideau and Maskwa, which is based in Halifax, would share the aggregate points club championship. Each club would be presented with a coveted burgee, a 10-foot long pennant, for its efforts.
Canoe Kayak Canada arrived at the decision to have co-winners, after collaborative discussions with Rideau and Maskwa officials “as a result of an ambiguity in points allocation and tabulation, the result of which could have resulted in either club being named the winner.”
The decision was historic as it was the first time two clubs shared the national club title, since the championships began in 1900 in Brockville.
The on-shore decision also gave Rideau its fifth consecutive national club points title in a row (2018 to 2023, no competition in 2020 because of COVID-19). Rideau joins four other clubs that have reached or exceeded five straight championships – Burloak Canoe Club, 2007-11; Mississauga Canoe Club, 1966-70; Cartierville Boating Club, 1958-65 (eight) and the Toronto Canoe Club, 1908-14 (seven).
Mississauga tops the charts for the most national club titles at 19.
“This was a new scenario and has not happened before,” Rideau head coach Cheyenne Farquharson said in a phone interview during a break at a Florida training camp. “We’re happy and excited. It’s nice we got this, but preparations are underway for the 2024 season.
“I haven’t heard much reaction (from club members), but I sent out a newsletter to all our athletes. I said congratulations and be proud. But what makes us great is not the number of burgees we have won, but it’s our positive training, our attitude and our sense of community.”
The Canadian sprint canoe-kayak championships are divided into 11 different racing categories. Athletes score points based on their finishing results and the club with the most points wins a group burgee.
When the 2023 national championships ended in early September, the original final results posted on the Canoe Kayak Canada website showed Maskwa had earned 1,202 points from the various classifications. Rideau was the runner-up with 1,148 points.
But when the point standings for each of the men’s and women’s U16, U18, junior and senior classes as well as the masters, Para and Paddle-All divisions were tabulated, the numbers indicated Rideau had a leading 1,148 points and Maskwa would have been second at 1,048 points.
Members of the paddling community brought this discrepancy to the attention of Canoe Kayak Canada and were concerned that the numbers didn’t add up.
It all came down to the interpretation of one rule in the Canoe Kayak Canada rule book. If the rule was applied one way, Maskwa was the winner. If it was applied another way, Rideau was the champion.
“There was a lack of clarity about how the points were allocated,” explained Farquharson, who represented Rideau in the three-way discussions. “There was an ambiguity of the rule.
“None of us wanted to let it go until we determined what is best for the sport and that’s what happened. We had in-depth discussions because we care deeply about the rule book. We wanted to make sure we got it right. We continue to work on something like this because we don’t want to see it happen again.
“It has taken quite a bit of effort. But it’s worth it. It’s important. What’s cool is our rule book gets voted on by club members. Clubs and associations can propose changes. I’m not sure how many other sports have that.”
Farquharson declined to pinpoint which rule had caused the confusion over the final club standings. She also added a group has been formed to review the rule book to make sure it is current and relevant with the large national championship racing program.
Martin Cleary has written about amateur sports for 50 years. A past Canadian sportswriter of the year and Ottawa Sports Awards Lifetime Achievement in Sport Media honouree, Martin retired from full-time work at the Ottawa Citizen in 2012, but continued to write a bi-weekly “High Achievers” column for the Citizen/Sun.
When the pandemic struck, Martin created the High Achievers “Stay-Safe Edition” to provide some positive news during tough times, via his Twitter account at first and now here at OttawaSportsPages.ca.
Martin can be reached by e-mail at martincleary51@gmail.com and on Twitter @martincleary.
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