Melissa Johnson continues her international marathon success claiming silver in the Women's Short Course final at the Marathon World Cup in Brandenburg, Germany.
After a high paced heat earlier in the day that saw her finish second to Kiszli of Hungary, Johnson (Chelmsford) was back in action and in great form to take on the final.
Racing over 3.4k, athletes completed three laps and two portages.
Fast out the block Melissa secured a solid position in the large lead group round lap one. Kiszli kept the pace high, and Johnson was able to stick with it all the way to the first portage.
She was swift out her boat and a quick run meant she was able to gain a few places making her the third boat back in the water.
Kiszli broke away from the field in lap two, leaving Johnson and Panna of Hungary to battle it out for the remaining podium positions. The duo upped the pace to create a gap from their chasers which cemented their top three positions.
Portage two saw Melissa in third place. She put everything into the final lap to emerge victorious and sped ahead of Panna to claim the silver.
She upgraded her bronze medal in the short course earnt last year at the World Cup, with this year’s silver finishing with a time of 0:18:01.
Speaking after her medal winning performance Johnson said:
“It was great, there was a lot more competition this year, so coming home with a silver medal definitely shows that I've improved over the winter and looks good for upcoming international races this year.
“I'm very pleased with second, I wasn't expecting it and I was just hoping for a top ten finish so I'm really happy
“In the heat I was up against Kiszli, it was great to go around with her and gave me insight into what I need to do to be in with a chance of getting a medal.
“In the final I got caught out on the start but moved myself into a great position next to both Hungarians going around the first turn. I think that put me in a great position going into the portage because I was able to run past them.
“I couldn't quite keep to Kiszli's pace, but the other Hungarian and I worked well together.
“I'm looking forward to getting back out there for the long course tomorrow, it will be interesting with the weather, it's looking windy.”
Fellow Brits Katie Brookes (Exeter) and Freya Peters (Richmond) both put down quick enough times to take them through to the Short Course final too.
Freya maintained a strong position mid field throughout the race. She fought hard to make it to the front group in lap one but dropped back to finish in 12th place with a time of 0:19:08.
Brookes sat at the back of the group in the first half of the race but was able to claw back up the field, putting in a dedicated performance to finish 14th with a time of 0:19:27.
The Men's Short Course final also took place today. Tim Dowden (Norwich) was the first Brit across the line.
It was a fast men's final with the likes of Knudsen and Ramalho setting the pace high from the start.
Matt Collinge (Fowey) powered to work his way through the field but an unfortunate swim towards the end of lap one caused him to drop back.
Dowden and fellow Brit Finn Cadell (Nottingham) kept a strong pace and progressed around lap two together.
Cadell dropped back from his team mate on the second portage, due to troubles on the portage.
Dowden took 15th place with a time of 0:16:51, he was closely followed by Cadell who crossed the line in 16th place in 0:17:11.
Collinge continued to show dedication to the race and completed the course in 18th place with a time of 0:18:37.
Sam Cribbet (Nottingham), Will Stroud (Chelmsford) and Arthur Morley (Wey) were also in action earlier today. They all put down solid performances in their respective heats.
All three athletes were competing in a senior men’s international race for the first time. Unfortunately they were unable to make it to the final. Competing in heat one Cribbet finished in 12th and Stroud in 15th. Morley took 11th in heat two.
The new mixed relay race event also took place today as a test event with a view to it potentially being introduced at a future ICF Canoe Marathon World Championships.
Three Brits took to the water as part of multinational teams taking on the relay.
Melissa Johnson and Matt Collinge teamed up with French junior Ana-Lucia Nowakowski and Danish junior Jeppe Frejo-Rasmussen. It was the international racing debut for the French and Danish junior athletes and they both noted how pleased they were to be competing with our British Duo.
The team performed well together and completed the relay race in 7th place in a time of 0:24:33.
Katie Brookes joined the Belgium team of Marthe Billet, Maarten Verschatse and Frederik Schulze to take on the relay. They proved to be another great relay team and finished in 8th place with a time of 0:24:59.
The relay order saw the junior women get the racing underway to complete the first stretch, followed by the senior women, junior men and then senior men finishing the final lap of the 4.8k course.
The teams completed four laps in total. Each athlete completed one lap the length of 1.2k and a portage to hand off to the next team mate.
It was great to see the inclusion of a new racing format at this World Cup. The combined nation teams provided a positive opportunity for our athletes to take part and gain experience in a new type of racing.
Melissa Johnson also noted how enjoyable the relay race was:
“It was great fun and I'm glad we got to collaborate with the French and Danish team. I hope they do more relay races like this one because it was great fun to be a part of and really cool to pair up with different countries for the test race.”
The team of nine British athletes will be back on the water racing in the long course events tomorrow. Action gets underway at 9:35am tomorrow morning with the Women's Long Course.
You can find the full results from today here.
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