Mick in great nick for Proteus at National Canoe Slalom Finals

Proteus winners Mick Stegeman and Jason Reid on top of the podium.

The city club actually finished second the last time the event was held in pre-Covid times and they were only beaten by two of the top canoe clubs in the country this year.

The top two places were taken by Stafford and Stone with Holme PiIerrepoint in third place, at the Cardington Artificial Slalom Course in Bedford, the country's first ever such facility.

Canoe slalom is not a team sport generally, but for this event all the top clubs in the country pick a team of their own club paddlers, all representing the different divisions, and they compete against each other as usual with the points all added up at the end of racing.

Proteus Canoe Club members at the National Canoe Slalom Championships.

Proteus enjoyed some fine individual results with two first-place finishes achieved by Mick Stegeman. He took the honours in the Vets C1 class and then joined up with club chairman Jason Reid to win the C2 class.

Dan Oldfield finished fourth in the former event.

Daniel Moss also claimed a first place in the Div 4 K1M category.

Other podium places were won by Andy Land (3rd in Div 4 K1M), Reid (3rd in Officials), Kosi Atkinson (3rd, Div 2 C1W), Ollie Stegeman (3rd, Div 2 C1M) and Tracy Wells (3rd, Vet K1W).