Melissa Johnson claimed a fantastic silver to wrap up three days of racing at the canoe sprint World Cup 2 in Poznan, Poland.
Johnson fought to second place in the women's K1 5000m, whilst a number of Brits were in A Final action on the final day of racing.
The Chelmsford paddler, who won a marathon World Cup bronze last season, drew her experience from the discipline to sit amongst the top three for the entire distance.
Tussling with Czechia paddler Katerina Milova, Johnson tactically pushed ahead of her competitor to get ahead in the final lap to take the silver medal.
Delighted to be on the podium, she said:
“I'm very happy to win silver. I came into the race trying to win a medal, but I wasn't expecting to come second. It was good and very fun.
“My plan was to hit the start as hard as I can and try and make the front group if possible. It was also to hit the first portage well as that's a strength of mine that I executed well.
“I was in the top three positions and we worked well together before I got a good sprint finish in.
“Having the knowledge and tactics of how to race marathons was key and brought a lot to the table. We had the short course nationals not that long ago and that really helped me too.”
James Russell (Nottingham) impressed again in the men's K1 1000m as he finished fifth in the A Final this morning.
After a brilliant heats win yesterday that saw him qualify direct to the final, Russell adopted similar tactics as he reserved his speed for the backend of the race.
Sitting in eighth at the halfway point, there was a big push from the 26-year-old as he progressed through the positions and into fifth, finishing in 3:40.63, under two seconds off the medals.
He narrowly missed out on a medal in the 5km too. It was a great race in the men's K1 as Russell sat in the top pack, but he ultimately finished fourth overall.
Qualifying for the women's C1 500m A Final after finishing second in her semi-final, Afton Fitzhenry (Belfast) put down another great display in her final race of the competition, finishing seventh in a time of 2:25.13.
Coming back from injury last season, Afton was pleased to get back out racing:
“It's great to be out racing again after injury and illness last year. I'm really happy with how I've raced across the last two days.
“Poznan was all about getting back into international racing in my C1 and I switched my focus about three weeks ago. I just wanted to get back to A Final standard in the 500m and I've done that.”
Izzy Evans (Chester) was on course twice during the final day of racing after an excellent semi-final to qualify for the C1W 200m A Final in a time of 48.72.
She returned to the Poznan course two hours later for the final, where she placed ninth overall in a battling effort.
“I was really happy with my semi, I was a bit hesitant in the heat and managed to attack the start a lot better and paddle in a good rhythm for the rest of the race.
“The final wasn’t my best race, I'm happy with the start but struggled with some wash.
“Ultimately, I'm really pleased with how it’s gone, happy to make another world class A final in the C1 200.”
Tom Lambert (Lincoln) and Jonathan Jones (Fladbury) both went head to head in the men's C1 1000m A Final.
With Lambert winning the early morning semi-final and Jones finishing a close second, the duo earned their spot in the final stage.
A quick turnaround was needed but great efforts were on show from the pair as Lambert finished sixth in 4:18.34, and Jones not far behind in seventh in 4:19.61.
The latter was also in 5km action in the men's C1. It was a great effort from the Fladbury paddler as he narrowly missed out on the medals in fourth place.
Emily Lewis (Worcester) rounded off another busy World Cup with a fifth place finish in the women's K1 500m B Final.
Progressing through the early morning semi-finals, the 200m bronze medal winner from Szeged posted a time of 2:00.23.
Lucy Lee-Smith (Norwich) was also in 500m action, but sadly just missed out on joining Lewis in the B Final.
Her time of 2:00.21 saw her place seventh, with a top six finish needed to progress to the latter stages.
After racing the 1000m yesterday, Anna Palmer (Reading) kicked off the 5km action this afternoon, as she finished the women's C1 in fifth.
The weekend's action saw nine athletes make A Finals in total, five of which were in Olympic events.
Chris Furber, Performance Director for Canoe Sprint and Paracanoe, said:
“One of the key objectives of the World Cup this year was to support the preparation of athletes towards the senior European Championships in two weeks time in Szeged, but also key U23 competitions coming up this summer.
“From that perspective we've achieved that. It's great to see U23 athletes integrating with the senior athletes and gain a lot of experience at a senior competition.
“One of the key things we've focussed on is race day delivery. So all of the elements that go into that. Making sure athletes' individual processes are really clear when they take to the line.
“As a staffing team I'm really pleased in the way everybody has picked themselves up after Szeged and come to deliver the best effort they can for the paddlers out here.
“It's been great to have Anton and Imogen as pathway coaches working alongside Brendan and James just supporting that knowledge transfer between the different levels of the programme.
“It's been a good competition. We've gained knowledge ahead of the 2025 World Cup and the 2026 Senior World Championships which will both be out in Poznan. A lot of the athletes we've had out here will have aspirations of being on that team in 2026 as we build into L.A 2028.”