Nick Harding | @nickhdg | Sportscene - Excellent turn out as youngsters and club seniors race at the annual London Sprint Regatta at the London (rowing) Regatta Centre on Sunday 21st July.

Young paddlers came from clubs from all over the country to compete on the 9-lane course in 500m and 200m races in K1, C1, K2, C2 classes – events were separated into age or ability groups including Novices and Relay teams. Clubs were competing for points and the Ed McKeever trophy.

North-West of the Royal Albert Dock, the 2000m Olympic-sized rowing course built in 1999 is home to several London universities' rowing clubs, as well as private rowing and dragon boat clubs. Its banks run parallel to the runway at London City Airport, which makes for some real picture-perfect photos, only today there were limited flights scheduled to land and take off.

It was a coat-wearing, humid, grey morning but there was a real excitement about this event. Vehicles with roof-racks lined the dockside seemingly endlessly; children, teenagers and adults were fine tuning their boats which sprawled out over the nearby grass.

The clouds started to disperse about midday but the UV factor had been ferocious since the early morning; much sun-cream needed for British skin!

There was an issue in the morning with the safety boats which gave organisers a few headaches; early on there were a couple of simultaneous swims mid and end-course, the safety boat sped to their rescue causing further, powerful wash. This wash then continued to ricochet off the solid walls like gun-fire; this apparently led to more swimmers.

This reiterates the importance of having three safety boats at the start, middle and finish.

It was great to see so many paddlers, boys and girls, men and women, of different abilities taking to the water with a competitive edge as well as the number of volunteer-officials who were helping out.

Overall winners were London-based Richmond Canoe Club with 367 points.

The results can be downloaded here as well overall points table: www.canoeracing.org.uk

Photo gallery by Adriana Castro.