Ireland struck gold in final race for the team at the ICF Canoe Marathon World Championships, with Sean Butterly coming home first in the Mens Junior Long Course event. In a hard fought race, Sean powered away from South Africa’s Keegan Vogt in the closing two hundred meters to take the win, two second ahead of his rival. This gold medal will be added to the silver and bronze medals won by Sean in the European Marathon Championships earlier this year. The long course gold was made all the sweeter as the young Salmon Leap Canoe Club paddler bounced back from a disappointing finish in the short course event two days earlier, taking a swim in the event to knock him out of medal contention.
Outside of Sean’s historic victory, Ireland’s World Championship campaign saw plenty of excellent performances from the young team who lined up in Gyor, Hungary. On the opening day three out of four juniors qualified through to the short course finals, with Lucy Cullen (13th Junior K1W) and Sean Smyth (10th Junior K1M) being the best placed Irish paddler in their respective finals. Lucy Cullen was back in action the following morning, finishing fifth in the Junior Women’s long course event, after missing out in a tight battle for the bronze medal. Emily Roche in the same race came home in twenty second, gaining great championship experience.
After some great paddling at the recent World Games in China, Paul Donnellan placed nineteenth in the U23 K1M long course race. This led in to the final race of the Championships for Ireland, the Junior K1 Men long course. As well as the gold medal won for Ireland in this event, Sean Smyth put in another strong performance to finish in twelfth, capping off a very consistent few days for the young paddler.
