2008 Australian Canoe Marathon Championships - Results
Jeremy Dunn, Saturday, 22 March 2008Day one results and story The crowd was treated to some spectacular and very tactical racing from high quality fields across the board at the 2008 Australian Marathon Canoe Championships at SIRC, Penrith, New South Wales.
The Open Men K1 provided one of the highlights with a sprint finish between the top three placegetters. Michael Leverett proved too strong pipping Chad Meek and David Cole, all three representing Victoria. Michael's winning time was 2 hours 33 minutes 21.23 seconds over the 33km course.
Hayden White, New South Wales, paddled a courageous race to win the Under 22 Men K1 from Arthur Alger, Victoria and Simon Baird also from Victoria.
Lani Belcher, Queensland, paddled a very tactical race to claim the Open and Under 22 Women K1 events in her first year competing in the senior ranks. Lani battled it out with Skye Taylor for over three quarters of the race pulling away at the last portage. After the race Lani said she was thrilled and felt that the combination of her sprint training and marathon experience provided the necessary edge for the victory. Sophie Melbald won the bronze medal. Megan Rose, Victoria was second in the Under 22 Women K1 and Eve Trickey, Victoria third.
Amy Peters, Victoria convincingly won the Under 18 Women K1 from Lauren Smith, New South Wales and Gina Heidke, Queensland. Lauren out sprinted Gina in the last 100 metres to claim the silver medal after Gina had made considerable ground over the course of the race. There were many close races in the veteran and under 16 classes with seconds only separating some of the placegetters. A full set of the results can be found at the links below.
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