Marie Buchanan won an impressive gold medal on day three of the 2023 ICF SUP World Championships in Pattaya, Thailand, as she stormed to the Long distance Master 50+ Women World title in emphatic fashion.
A number of Brits were in action throughout the day, SUPJunkie has rounded up the third day of action.
Photo by Verity Thomas
Words: SUPJunkie
There is nothing quite like waking up to some great, great news coming from the 2023 ICF World Championships in Pattaya. Marie Buchanan has won a GOLD medal for the Great Britain.
Marie and the other GB athletes have been competing in the Distance Race in some quite challenging conditions over in Thailand. With a constant strong offshore wind to deal with, brutal side chop and scorching sun, the paddlers had the challenge of 10-15km depending on their age category.
Mass starts and buoy turns only added to the excitement. For some of the athletes, there was disappointment in having to make the difficult decision to either not start or pull out halfway through due to conditions or preparation for the tough technical racing on Saturday and Sunday.
So how did the GB paddlers fare in the Distance race? Blue Ewer came 16th out of over 80 starters in the stacked Open field – Blue really is up there now with competitors from across the world and can always be relied upon to give the best account of himself on the day.
In the 40+, Alistair Hughes came in 34th out of 70 paddler – an incredible achievement.
In the 50+, Alex Jessel 40th and Ian Chapman 43rd – again another stacked field of nearly 70 paddlers.
We must really applaud Hector Jessel, our only Junior paddler at this event – he came in 10th out of 66 competing against some of the fastest juniors paddling in the world today. To have a top ten in this field is admirable.
For the women we had Natalie Rendle paddling strong to finish 10th out of 36 in the 40+ and Sara Maxey not far behind in 24th. Great results from these two ladies.
So, we move onto the biggest result of the day. Marie Buchanan has been paddling and racing for well over ten years and has achieved so much internationally.
Last year at the ICF Worlds in Poland, she took the Gold in the 40+ distance race. This year, having moved gracefully into the 50+, she still holds her own against some fierce competition. Marie loves ocean conditions which are challenging, and this suited her well. She finished over 5 minutes ahead of her nearest rival and ahead of 34 other starters.
Another GOLD in the bag for Marie and she is not only a champ and an inspiration to others, but a thoroughly lovely person too – well done Marie!
We also must applaud all those British athletes who are pushing their own boundaries in international competition, this event allows them to go and pit themselves against others and some of our paddlers have not left the shores of the UK before so a big well done to them.
We are looking forward to the Technical Racing which is being held over the next two days – you can catch up with all the action here together with LIVE results: