WAIS athletes have enjoyed another successful weekend in local competition with Brendon Sarson and Jesse Phillips both tasting victory in separate events.
Sarson (Balcatta) showed that he is well and truly back in form and recovered from a vertebral fracture sustained just over three months ago with a clinical and convincing victory over a class field of 600 in the annual Classic Paddle from Perth to Fremantle (14km).
In a field containing a who’s who of paddling in WA comprising Olympians, National Kayak and Surf Lifesaving Champions and several paddlers from the East, Sarson took charge just after the “Dash for Cash” buoy at the 1km mark.
The dash for cash was won by WAIS’s Jesse Phillips (Nollamara), but Sarson was not headed after, crossing the line in 1 hour 3 min and 25 secs, 1 min 45 sec ahead of up and coming ironman David Graham in second and multiple National Surf Ski medallist Dean Beament in third. Jesse Phillips paddled a good race to come home in 8th position.
In a big racing weekend for Phillips, he took out the fastest paddle category with Steve Bird (Mount Pleasant) just behind in the annual Blackwood Marathon in Bridgetown.
This weekend will see the paddlers head south for the King of the Cape from Smith’s Beach to Bunkers Bay over 17km. Part of the National Ocean Racing series the event will attract a class field and Brendon Sarson will again be one of the paddler’s to beat.
Several of the WAIS paddlers will continue further south on Sunday and contest paddle leg of the Anaconda Adventure Race billed as the biggest race of its type in the World with 600 entrants.
