Mark Whitby

Mark Whitby came from a family of canoers but was the only one who raced competitively. He took up canoeing after joining the Richmond Canoe Club at the age of 12, and when just 17 took part in the European Junior Canoeing Championships in Sweden. The following year he went to the Olympics as the youngest member of the 1968 British canoeing team. He partnered the second-oldest member, 27-year-old Peter Lawler, in the Kayak Doubles and reached the semi-finals but came last in their heat. Whitby was a student at the time of the Mexico Games.

Whitby and Brian Greenaway led from start to finish in the 125-mile (201km) 1968 Junior Devizes to Westminster Race and won by more than one hour from the second-placed pair from the Metropolitan Police Corps. At the National Championships that year, Whitby helped Richmond win the K-4 1,000 metres and 4x500 metres relay titles. Whitby competed in his second European Junior Championships at Moskva (Moscow) in 1969. Laurence Oliver took up canoeing at the age of 13 and a year later, in 1957, was one of the founder members of the Lincoln Canoe Club, who he served for over 40 years. He was secretary at the age of 17, and in addition to representing them on the water, became a coach and club chairman. He was also a one-time manager of the British junior Olympic canoeing squad. As a national coach, Oliver helped pick the Great Britain squad for the 1988 Seoul Olympics.

Oliver became one of Britain’s finest canoeists and raced all over the world. He took part in five World Championships, starting with East Berlin 1966, and represented Great Britain at three Olympics between 1968-76, reaching the K-4 semi-final on two occasions. He was only the second British canoe racer, after Peter Lawler, to compete at three Olympics. Oliver represented his country at 45 international regattas and when he retired from competitive canoeing after the 1976 National Championships, he did so with a record 32 national titles to his name, including the 1963 British Long-Distance Championship with Michael Parker. Oliver returned to race in veteran events, many in the K-2 class with his brother Richard, and in the 1990s he added more trophies to his already impressive collection.

As a youngster, Oliver attended Lincoln Technical College before going to the Bishop Grosseteste University (now Lincoln Bishop University). He went on to become a schoolteacher. “The Laurence Oliver Cup” was inaugurated in 2008 and awarded annually by the Lincoln Canoe Club to a junior who showed good sporting behaviour throughout the year.