Paterson paddles her way to white water silver

A COMPETITIVE white water canoeist with ties to Feakle paddled her way to a silver medal at the world championships that were held in Spain last week.
Dee Paterson, whose family reside at Coolagoree near Feakle, took second place at the in the women’s class 2010 ICF Wildwater Canoeing Masters event in which she represented Great Britain. She missed out on the gold medal by just under four seconds to Hiroko Sasao from Japan.
Davida, known as Dee, explained her Clare connections to The Champion. “My family live on a farm in the Feakle area where they mainly breed Connemara horses. My younger sister went to school in Scariff. I work in the UK but take every opportunity to return home when I have enough annual leave to spare after taking holidays to compete, so sometimes I may only get to Clare at Christmas.”
White water racing is a discipline of canoe sport in which each competitor negotiates a section of rapids, a choppy, turbulent section of on a river.
“I think the Americans have the best description as they call the sport ‘downriver canoeing’,” Dee explained.
“Races are conducted as a time trial and race distances vary due to the nature and speed of the river along with the degree of difficulty of the white water rapids so they can be 10 to 25 minutes in length. I race in the women’s singles kayak category”.
Paterson started white water racing in 2003 and has been racing internationally since 2004.
“Previously I was involved in slalom canoeing when I was a junior. Competitions have taken me throughout Europe. That’s one of the things that I love about the sport and especially the white water competitive discipline. I get to see some of the most beautiful and unspoilt, countryside, mountains and of course fantastic white water, while I also get to meet the people who reside in the area.
“The most clear and whitest water I have ever seen was in my first international season when competing in a world cup event on the River Soca in Slovenia. In comparison I remember the vivid blues of the river when competing at the European championships in Bihac, Bosnia.
“The venue of my first International, the 2004 World Championships, in Garmisch Partenkirken in Bavaria is still my favourite place to visit, stunningly beautiful alpine landscape and glacier melt waters with the river at the foot of the tallest mountain in Germany, the Zugspitze at 2,962m.”
Dee says she has been very fortunate to be involved in a sport which involves such a diverse range of people and characters from all corners of the world.
“Strong friendships exist between competitors at the events, on the home and international competition circuits but when it comes to racing, once on the water every competitor is out to achieve the fastest time possible,” she said.
Some of her favourite paddling rivers are in Ireland, one of them being the Avonmore in Wicklow.
“I love to enter the Liffey Descent which is an international renowned annual descent event. I have taken part on a number of occasions.”
Prior to her recent silver medal win in Spain, Dee’s best result at international level was a bronze team medal at the World Cup 2005 held on the Shannon in Castleconnel.
“It was wonderful to race in Ireland. My parents saw me racing in a white water boat for the first time. To have them there and be racing in Ireland did make it really special.”
Dee said she hadn’t been expecting such a good result when she went to Spain.
“Due to the weather, there had been 36-hours of heavy rain, the event schedule had to be put on hold and it had looked unlikely that the event would even take place at one point.
“One day of postponement caused a few issues with flights but these were soon overcome to ensure that I could race. The sun came out and the high waters began to subside. The organising committee came up with an alternative stretch of river for us to race on. Unfortunately this wasn’t the part of the river on which I had trained and raced last year at the pre-world championships,” she explained.
Following her success, she immediately telephoned her parents in Feakle to give them the news.
“At the medal ceremony I was presented with a bouquet which was posted back home to my parents and arrived in Clare still relatively intact. I really wanted them to have it as it was from my first world championship prizegiving.
“I wanted to acknowledge all the years of support which my family have given me. They have always encouraged me to train hard and follow my sporting dreams. I will continue to do this and strive now to turn silver into gold in the future,” Dee concluded.