The Irish Marathon Canoe Championships, sponsored by Dolakas restaurant, Waterways Ireland, Fermanagh District Council and North South Marine took place on July 19-20 on the river Erne around the town of Enniskillen with a number of locals tasting success on the day.

97 of the top paddlers from all corners of Ireland gathered at the Lakeland Forum to compete to be crowned national champions for 2014. The race, organised and run by Erne Paddlers Canoe Club, involved 7km laps starting at the Forum, around the Island town and upstream to the Ardowen Theatre and back. Saturday’s races was for the single kayaks (K1) and the local club had some success in the junior novice and senior ladies races. In the junior Novice event Erne Paddlers athletes Darren Foster Under 18, Mark Kells Under 14, Jamie Hogg U10 and Nimbh Cassidy girls Under 10 all took gold medals after covering the 2km course. In the Ladies senior event Helen Flanaghan, a recent convert to kayaking from rowing, finished a remarkable third behind Irish internationals Jenny Egan of Salmon Leap and Cait Broderick of Thomastown Paddlers.

In the men’s senior race Irish international and Olympic hopeful Peter Egan of salmon leap managed to hold off a strong challenge from club mate Sean McCarthy to win the 21 KM race by 2 seconds in a time of I hour 36 minutes.

Sunday saw the Athletes take to the 2 man kayaks (K2) and again spectators witnessed some excellent racing. In the senior K2 Peter Egan and Sean McCarthy again fought out a very close race. Egan teamed up with David Francis and McCarthy with Spaniard Luis Martinez and again Egan was the winner by 3 seconds.

In the 12km race there was sucess for the local club with father and son team of Gerry and Darragh Murphy taking the gold in an eventful race. With negotiating the East Bridges in racing conditions going to be challenging, the Erne club men entered the bridge leading their class and after a collision with one of the pillars they exited in fourth.

The crew worked hard to enter the portage at the Forum in third and on entry to the water they had pulled back another place to second. When they rounded the marker at the Ardowen with 5km covered, first place had been recovered and this position was held until the end where they won by 25 seconds. Second place went to Craig Wilson and Luke Fitzhenry of Belfast Canoe Club and their clubmates Ray Sweetlove and Ben Dooley third.

Feedback from from all the athletes and support staff was very encouraging for the club in their first holding of a major championship. In the future the club has ambitious plans to hold the European Marathon Championships, a World Cup event and the World Championships over a five year period. If anyone, young or old, would like to try canoe or kayak sport contact the club through it`s website www.ernepaddlers.org .uk or our facebook page.