Edwin de Nijs, race organiser, looks back with great pride, with over hundred athletes from eleven different countries having started in the different classes. The goal of the organisation, to set up a large international race interesting for both top athletes and regular paddlers, was definitely achieved.

With this growing number of competitors it is exciting to see what the future of this 'classic' type of marathon race will look like. Despite the renewed formats for marathon racing, athletes and spectators will all agree that ‘classic' racing remains the most beautiful type of competition.

On a sunny but quite windy day the Waterland Marathon was won by the Dutch paddler Joep van Bakel, it has been three years since a Dutch athlete proved powerful enough to beat the very strong international competition.

The expected tough race started immediately after the mass-start with over sixty competitors starting at once, a large leading group with all the favorites was formed and the fierce battle begun. This leading group stayed together until the first portage, it was this portage where Joep van Bakel and the British, Tim Pendle, made their escape from the group of chasing athletes.

The GB top talent Tim and Joep had to work together to stay away from the chasing group of athletes with the Swedish Rasmus Jaruta, British Keith Moule, Belgian Tom Cremers and Czech legend Tomas Jezek. This group of chasers kept pushing really hard to close the gap that originated from the first portage. Joep and Tim succeeded to stay ahead and in the final sprint it was Joep van Bakel who came out on top.

In the men’s master division the strongest paddler proved to be Portuguese Filipe Pereira, who demonstrated being a very strong paddler finishing the race within only 7.5 minutes of the fastest time set by Joep van Bakel. He was followed very closely by the German Klaus Gieres. These men left behind as many as seventeen senior competitors.

Senior ladies

In the senior ladies division the race turned into a battle of Scandinavian women between  Swedish Emma Andersson and her Danish rival Annemia Pretzmann. Together they formed a gap of several minutes over German Pia Ruhm. Eventually the Scandinavian battle was won by Emma.

The senior ladies started together along with the junior men's division in which the first place was taken by the Hungarian top talent Tamas Gesco, who despite going for a small swim session at the second portage still managed to end in the first place of this race. To do this, a fierce end sprint was needed to stay in front of the Belgian talent Arne de Brabandere and British Thomas Stanway.

The places of honour in the junior ladies division went to the Belgian Kjinta Smalle, who stayed just in front of her club rival Lisanne Terrie.

The competition really showed it can attract top paddlers from around the world; as many as twenty-five competitors finished within ten minutes of the winning time set by Joep van Bakel.

All this has only been possible because of the great help from our sponsors; Jan Ijskes Funderingstechnieken “de Coogh”, Kanocentrum Arjan Bloem and Nelo Kayaks. The organising club, Viking Amsterdam, is very proud to receive so many international competitors and hopes to see even more next year.

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