Matthew Johnson and sister Melissa Johnson both claimed National Championship titles on Sunday at the Marathon Short Course National Champs.
A day of glorious sunshine brought some epically tight racing and a great show of the Marathon talent across the nation.
The course at Gunwade Lake, Peterborough hosted three laps and two beach portages over the 3.4km distance.
A morning full of high octane heats determined the finals with the first, second and third positions going through along with the next best times.
It was Chelmsford's Matt Johnson who came out victorious in the Senior Men's category beating out Elmbridge's Harry Freeland in a tight sprint to the finish to earn the James Smythe Memorial Trophy.
After success in his heat earlier in the day Johnson led throughout the final. He came in strong on the first portage and had the running pace, going long on the get in to lead going into the second lap.
The lead group remained strong and fast around lap two and put distance in between the chasers after another fast portage.
A group of four led into the final lap looking strong. Racing up an age category, Joe Enoch put in a solid effort to catch the group and make it stick down the final stretch.
Freeland upped the pace as they came into the finish line but Johnson kept him at bay to maintain the winning position. Matt finished with a time of 00:14:01, a second ahead of Harry.
A sprint for third saw Wey's Arthur Morley power to claim third with a time of 00:14:04.
Speaking after the race Matt said: “It was good fun, a good race and I was against some good people out there so yeah not too shabby.
Harry's got a good kick on him, so I was always looking out for him, coming into the line and into the portages as well. I'm glad it all worked out in the end.
Mainly, I was keeping my eye out for Harry. I was confident just cruising to the line and building up the pace gradually coming in and then I was backing my burn to the finish.”
When asked if he'll be looking over his shoulder for Harry in future races he said: “Yeah, but I want to catch up with James (Russell) and Dan (Johnson) first who weren’t here today, that’s where I'll mainly be looking.”
Melissa Johnson flew round the course to earn the Senior Women's National Champion title! A tightly fought race between the Chelmsford Paddler and Wey's Greta Roeser ended with a sprint for the finish between the duo.
The senior women put on a fast paced race. A group of five formed in the first lap and led into the portage. The group started to split as the faster runners pulled away.
Johnson and Roeser stormed ahead after the portage get in, followed by Jessie Urquhart (Nottingham)
The leading two pulled away from the rest of the pack in lap two leaving Urquhart to put in an effort to chase solo.
The battle for first place was decided in the final straight. Melissa claimed the win finishing with a time of 00:15:23 earning her the converted James Smythe Memorial Trophy.
Speaking after her race she said: “yeah that was fun, it was very high paced and I wasn't expecting to pull as much ground off the the start but me and Greta working really well together
Jess was flying off the start and led around and then I tried to take up the lead, but Greta took it up and then I knew I just had to hammer it into the portage to see if I can make up any ground and it worked and we got away which was good
Greta did so well and I saw she was moving away so I knew I had to take the next 20 seconds to power on and catch up.”
Senior and U23 paddlers joined for their final. The national championship breakdown for U23 medals in the men's race saw Harry Freeland claim the national title, Arthur Morley in second and Nottingham's Joe Enoch in third (00:14:05).
In the women's category Greta Roeser was the U23 national champion with Jessie Urquhart in second and Freya Peters (Richmond) in third with a time of 00:16:09.
It was a hard fought Men's Canoe Final. The quartet of canoeists were fast off the line and Jonathan Johnson (Fladbury) showed great speed early on to break away from the other competitors.
He earnt the national championships title beating the rest of the field by an impressive 31 seconds. Second and third went to paddlers from Richmond with Owen Chisholm second across the line in 00:18:04. A tight sprint finish for third saw Andrew Elliot claim the bronze in 00:19:26.
In the U23 age category for C1 George Bell took third (00:19:27).
Paracanoe
Tim Lodge of Wey, an athlete with a wealth of experience in paddling took the win in the Paracanoe Men's final after powering around the course.
He crossed the finish line just under four minutes ahead of his competitors (00:16:17).
Second and third place went to Norwich paddlers after dedicated performances around the course.
Shaun Cook crossed the line second in 00:20:08 and William Towler in third (00:23:12).
Juniors
Kamila Sklenarova of Norwich was crowned U18 National Champion after a great race.
A strong start to the race saw a trio of Sklenarova, Annabel Hutchinson (Reading) and Sienna Payne (Chelmsford) emerge around lap one. Payne was quick on the portages and was first on the water for the get in.
The same trio held their positions round lap two with Sklenarova upping the pace out of the second portage in a successful attempt to create distance from Payne in the last lap.
The Norwich paddler flew across the line in a tight sprint finish against Hutchinson. The winning time was 00:15:53 followed by 00:15:54 from the Reading paddler. Sienna Payne was close behind finishing in 00:16:08.
In the U16 age group Dianore De Bilio (Royal) was National Champion with a time of 00:17:01. Charlotte Fulford-Perez (Reading) was second in 00:17:44 and Izzy Ritchie (Wey) third in 00:18:17. Matilda Burton (Elmbridge) took the U14 win in 00:18:27, Ruth Shephard (Reading) was second in 00:18:42 and Richmond's Molly Bates took third (00:19:04).
A stacked field in the Junior Men's class made for some tight racing. Joe Enoch reigned victorious and earnt the U18 National Championship title.
A large group formed round lap one causing a chaotic first portage. Speeding ahead on the run Richmond's Alex Worgan and Joe Enoch were first back on the water. William Short (Elmbridge) kept pace around the next lap and made it stick leading out of the second portage.
However it wasn't enough as Enoch and Worgan came through for a sprint finish. A mere second splitting first and second place, Enoch finished with a time of 00:14:32 and Worgan in 00:14:33. Short was third across the line with a time of 00:14:40.
A breakdown in age group National Titles saw Willian Roeser (Wey) win U16 in 00:14:44 followed by Tom Hatton (Richmond) in 00:15:07 and Freddie Heard (Exeter) in 00:15:48. The U14 champion was Louis Smith of Worcester (00:16:54), second place went to Lorenzo De Bilio (Royal) in 00:16:50 and third was Sam Bull (Elmbridge) in 00:17:03.
Masters
The Enoch's proved their paddling talent once again in the Men's Masters final as Nottingham's Matt Enoch stormed to a spectacular win.
It was tight racing amongst the top four boats throughout the race. Enoch, Edgar Boehm (Reading), Juan Caruncho (BAD) and Jimmy Butler (Nottingham) were quick round lap one and out of the first portage.
Boehm picked up the pace making sure he was first out on the second portage. Enoch and Caruncho kept with the fastened pace and put a huge run in to go long on the get in and maintain contact with the group and they head for the finish line.
A big up from Enoch on the home stretch resulted in a thrilling sprint finish between the Nottingham and Reading paddlers with Enoch earning both the O34 and O44 National Titles in 00:15:15. Boehm took second in 00:15:17. Perfect positioning from Butler allowed him to ride from the V wash straight through to third place in 0:15:18.
In the O54 age group Butler took the National title, followed by Stan Missen (BOA) with a time of 00:16:52 and Nick Herbert (Falcon) in 00:17:00.
Kat Wilson (Bishop Stortford) dominated the Women's Masters straight final finishing over a minute ahead of the field with a time of 16:56.
Wilson broke away and created distance early on in the race. She led into the first portage and stormed ahead with a great run.
In the O34 age group Wilson earnt the National Title. Falcon’s Joanne Bates earnt second place with a time of 00:18:08 and Cathrine Ayling (Ealing) took third with a time of 00:19:18.
The camaraderie within the Women's Masters category shone through as the finished paddlers waited just beyond the finish line to cheer on all the remaining competitors in their race.
The age group breakdown for the O44 and O54 National titles in the Women's masters race saw Cathrine Ayling in first, Caroline Banson (Broadland) in second (00:20:25) and Justine Jenkins (Nottingham) close behind in third (00:20:26).
Nene Park proved once again to be the ideal venue to host the fast paced action of Marathon Short Course racing. The view deck created the perfect atmosphere allowing supporters to cheer all the way along the portage pushing the paddlers along.
Congratulations to all our new National Champions crowned this weekend. A huge thank you to the Marathon Racing Committee for organising another great event.
All the results from the weekend can be found on the Marathon Racing Committee website and an album of photographs can be found here.