Added on May 23, 2022 Sara Swanson

Canoe/Kayak Race a great success!

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submitted by Sybil Kolon for the Canoe/Kayak Race Committee

The 56th Annual Manchester River Raisin Canoe/Kayak Race is in the books. This year, the weather on the third Sunday in May was awesome. The river was not too high or too low. Eighty-two canoes and kayaks completed the course. The best time was 34:12 by David Ives in the Single Male Kayak Class. The slowest time was 1:22:09, which is really not bad considering how many narrow passages had to be navigated.

An enthusiastic crowd cheered on the contestants as they approached the finish line. After medals were awarded the Sprint Canoe race drew seven more contestants, with all times just over one minute. One racer exclaimed: “That minute tired me out way more than paddling the entire race.”

The canoe race committee would like to thank our many sponsors and volunteers for their support. Without them, and all of the participants, this race would not be possible. This race shows what community is all about.

About half of the participants are from the Manchester area. The rest hail from Ann Arbor, Ypsilanti, Detroit, Jackson, Brooklyn, Dexter, Plymouth, Monroe, Kalamazoo, Reading, Clayton, Horton, Milford, Novi, Grand Rapids, Bellaire, Lincoln Park, Milan, Cadillac, Tecumseh, and Saline.

There are many people who return each year to test the waters. Steve Foley has been racing almost every year since the 1980s. He and his grandson, Reed, took third place in the Adult-Child Canoe Class. This year there were at least six other members of his extended family from the west side of the state who joined in the race.

We had at least three entries in each of 11 categories, so all of those 1st-, 2nd-, and 3rd-place medals were awarded. There were no entries in the Teen Canoe Class, leaving us to wonder if we can find at least three teams next year. We also want to encourage more local businesses to get involved in the Corporate Challenge, and more serious racers to enter the Competition Canoe Class. Each of these classes had only three entries.

One of the more interesting statistics was revealed by doing a sort on elapsed time. Richard Ensley, who is from Lincoln Park and has been in the race for the past four years, had the fifth and sixth fastest times of the day. He made it in 37:19 for 2nd in the Single Canoe Class and 37:20 in the Single Male Kayak Class for 3rd place 53 minutes later, separated by only one second!

Tamara Denby was awarded a $50 gift certificate and a T-shirt for her winning entry in our T-shirt design contest. We have more of the shirts for sale for $15, available at the Sharon Valley Bicycle Shoppe, 108 E. Main St, Manchester. Past T-shirts are available for $5.

Proceeds from the race will be donated to the Teacher’s Funds for Manchester Community Schools.

A few weeks ago, our little hometown race was discovered by a data-crunching canoeist, Eric Jones, who has gathered data on more than 200 canoe races around North America. This is what he posted on the PaddleStats Facebook page after we informed him about the longevity of our race:

“You can add Manchester River Raisin Canoe/Kayak Race to the list of oldest currently active downriver races. In fact, the race appears to have been held continuously since 1967, which would make it the second-oldest continuously held downriver race in North America. That I know about, anyway; occasionally I discover new ones, like this one.” The only race with a longer history than ours is the Potomac Whitewater Canoe Race, which has been running since 1956.

Check out PaddleStats.net, where three years of our race results are posted. We will be gathering all of the data we can locate to send to him soon. There is a lot more history to gather and review. We are working with the Manchester Area Historical Society to prepare a display of canoe race history and to help digitize existing documents. Please send an email to info@mahsmi.org if you would like to help.

See the top 3 winners in each category in last week’s article HERE (sprint race winners have been added since last week) and all finishers with their times HERE.

Some 56th Annual Manchester River Raisin Canoe/Kayak Race fun facts: