Hosted at Encounter Lakes in South Australia, the 2024 Paddle Australia Canoe Marathon and SUP Championships saw more than 200 paddlers take part from April 5-7.
The hugely successful event saw winners crowned in a range of race, age and classification categories.
Three-time Open Champion from the event, Rebecca Mann was thrilled to race in South Australia and defend the titles she won last year in Geelong.
“The lead up to nationals was probably one of my best, I’ve been really committed with my training and racing,” said Mann.
“I was really confident going in which meant I felt really relaxed on race day and was able to perform at my best.
“I think the work I’ve been putting in showed at nationals, so I was pretty happy with my results from the weekend.”
As well as winning both the long and short course K1 events, Mann partnered up with Kate Leverett (VIC) to challenge in the K2 long course race.
“I’ve always wanted to do doubles with Kate Leverett. The weekend was the first time we raced together but we clicked almost instantaneously and were stoked to win that race,” said Mann.
Victor Harbour welcomed local and international paddlers in what was the first time a national event was hosted at the site.
“It was a great location for nationals, different to anything I’ve had in the past as it was quite technical but still quite deep,” said Mann.
“It was definitely one of my favourite courses that I’ve paddled on in my Marathon career.
“The event was really well run, the volunteers were great and the event organisers had obviously put a lot of work into the event which meant everything could run really efficiently,” she finished.
Josh Kippin also had a stellar weekend on the water, winning the long and short course Open K1 events as well as the K2 event for the third year in a row.
“It’s always a great feeling when you know you’ve performed well,” said Kippin.
“The guys put up a very tough fight across the races and it’s always great to have that depth of racing, it makes it even better when you win in that context.
“The short course K1 was definitely my most challenging race. I nearly went for a swim after the first turn but managed to save it and spent the next few laps catching up to the front group. I was really happy to win that one in a very tight bunch sprint at the end,” he finished.
For a full list of results, click here: 2024 PACMSC Results_OCR.
Images: Photos By Carolyn J Cooper
