2018 Awards

Winter Series:

This is to acknowledge the best paddlers in the marathon Winter Series season.  

Separate awards will be presented to male, female & junior members. The award is based on the highest number of Canoeing Victoria points accumulated through the season. In the event of a tie, the member who has the highest finishing record will be declared the winner

Results (through the CV points system and checked against the FCC points system) –

Womens: Elena Cementon

Mens: Stephen Routley, just pipping Tony Payne by a handful of points

Junior: Leo Lazaretto for the second year running

Coaches Awards:

This is seen as recognition for commitment, consistency and improvement in paddling over the last 12 months. Selected by Coach or coaching panel.

This year our junior numbers have kept growing in both flatwater and canoe polo. Thank you to all the coaches who have given their time through the year.

And the winners are:

Lachlan McConnell, Em Campbell and Chau Nguyen

President’s award:

This is seen as recognition for overall effort to the FCC, not necessarily related to paddling. It is seen as a way to reward members who contribute to the administration or maintenance of the Club over the last 12 months

This year the President’s Award goes to Elena Cementon. Elena has been a truly outstanding member of the board for the last 4 years. She held both the busy Membership and Social portfolios, and did a fantastic job in both. Some of the highlights of her time on the board have been the Christmas parties, the silent auction and last year’s massive movie fundraiser at the Rivoli. When she’s not running the club she is also a very handy paddler and a great advocate for canoe paddling at the club.

Under the Yarra award:

This is a social award and is intended to acknowledge and reflect a member who personifies the "Club Spirit" over the last 12 months. This may be related to a members personality or a particular experience.  While these awards may poke a little fun at a member’s expense … the nominees are all people who put in enormous amounts to develop and support paddling at FCC, and that’s what this award really recognizes.

And the winner is: Brigit Doyle. Brigit has introduced a whole new cohort of canoe polo paddlers to the club, which has kick-started new competition between clubs throughout Melbourne. As well as being a very handy polo player, she is also out almost every weekend leading sessions with juniors and adults new to the sport. As a board we are very excited to see polo at the club go from strength to strength, and look forward to how it continues to grow.

Canoe Polo award:

In the spirit of the previous award, this year we have created a new award for our polo paddlers. The intention is to recognize outstanding performers in competition in polo, noting that as a team sport it is quite a different discipline from our more traditional flatwater paddling.

The award is currently without a name – we would love to hear any suggestions

The winner is: Jen Stevens. Jen has been a stalwart in polo at the club for many years now, having started out paddling flatwater at Strathcona. She has been overseas representing Australia on several occasions, and sets a great example for sportsmanship and work ethic on the water.

Szigeti award:

This is seen as an elite award presented to the best overall performance by a club member over the racing calendar year.
The emphasis is on performance and consistency in all ICF, Canoeing Australia and Canoeing Victoria flatwater events (Sprint & Marathon). 

This year the award goes to Sabastian Wakim. Sab is our top club C1 paddler, and has been competing at the top national level for several years now. In the last couple of years he has been making the difficult transition into international paddling, coming up against the top European athletes.

This year he competed at the World Marathon Championships in Portugal, finishing the 26 km Open men’s C1 event. This is a great achievement for Sab and the best result for an Australian in many years.

Off the water Sab also contributed to the club by bringing in new paddlers to the challenging kneeling C1 discipline. We wish him all the best in future competitions.