Sunday 4th October saw the first race of the local marathon competition season kick off with the popular Island to Island race over 11.7 km from Ascot Kayak Club to the Sandringham Hotel and return.
WAIS athlete Jesse Phillips (Nollamara) showed that specialized training for the new Olympic distance of 200m does not appear to have affected his endurance with a strong but controversial win over young up and coming WAIS paddler Brendan Rice.
A collision between the two over the last 100 metres gave the crowd some extra excitement and saw Rice come off second best allowing Phillips to cross the line six seconds in front in a time of 50 min 11 sec.
WAIS scholarship holder Daniel Bowker (Kingsley) enjoyed his best performance in a marathon race to date coming home in third position, 33 seconds behind Phillips.
In the women’s event Lisa Russ (East Fremantle) had a very convincing paddle winning in 54 min 15 sec narrowly missing Rachel Simper’s 2007 race record by 11 seconds.
Former WAIS athlete Jenni Bateman was second just over three minutes behind with new WAIS athlete Libby Le Coultre rounding out the top three.
