Canoe cup back on the lake

BENDIGO Canoe Club’s annual cup event is back, however for the second year in a row will not run as normal.

Secretary Tony Misson said the club has worked hard to comply with COVID-19 restrictions, ahead of their annual Bendigo Cup on Sunday, 17 October.

Normally the cup would take place on the Loddon River at Bridgewater with about 120 paddlers competing, however Lake Weeroona has become the temporary home of the race.

“Last year we were one of the first sports to return to play, we had to dramatically modify our event,” Mr Misson said.

Mr Misson said this year’s cup will differ still, with no entry fee and no prize money.

The event is open to the 80 or so Bendigo Canoe Club members only, with costs cut to support those who have themselves supported the club during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“It’s an arrive, paddle and disperse type event,” Mr Misson said. “It’s more like club training. We’ll be running 10 laps at 9am for a limited number of people.

“At 10.30am we’ll run a number of laps for limited people in the Community Fun Paddle.”

Mr Misson said the coronavirus pandemic saw an increase in people wanting to paddle and the club has adapted to restrictions, with the help of Paddling Victoria’s COVID safe plan.

“We’ve got people that want to paddle, that are trying to cope with the situation,” he said.

“We’ve had a huge increase in people that want to paddle, we’ve got our instructors and coaches qualified, we’ve got people trained as COVID marshals, first aid officers. We’re trying to cater for the demand.

“It’s very easy to maintain the safe social distance, you’re well separated. It’s probably the safest sport really.

“We’re having people that can’t play netball, can’t play football, coming back to paddling. We’ve worked really hard to try support our members.”

Mr Misson said the club supports new members through initiatives such as their schools, junior and active women programs, and the club aims to support individual paddlers to become independent paddlers.

“We’ve got a lot of little urban lakes here in Bendigo so instead of everyone coming to the lake we’ve given people boats to take home so they can go paddle at Crusoe Res, Kenny Res or Lake Neangar,” he said.