In the Paddlecast preview episode last week, Billy and Betsy predicted epic battles at the World Games marathon kayak racing in Chengdu, China. The event, considered the Olympics of non-Olympic sports, delivered. And even better, some of the champions themselves join this episode to reveal the pivotal moments in their own races.

Both the men’s and women’s races quickly went from large packs to simple head-to-head races between the top two athletes: Melina Andersson (Sweden) versus Vanda Kiszli (Hungary), and Mads Brandt Pedersen (Denmark) versus Hamish Lovemore (South Africa).

And behind the top two were fierce fights for bronze medals, sprint finishes for top five placements, unexpected incidents that took a podium contender’s rudder out of commission and put another podium contender in the medical tent… And a cross-wind with big waves on Sunday that forced top athletes to change tactics mid-race.

In the women’s race, Melina Andersson looked strong out of the gate in both the short course and marathon events. But Vanda Kiszli was determined to challenge for the win, and stuck with Melina successfully until Melina’s superior portaging skills gave her an unbeatable lead.

Melina spoke with Paddlecast about how the race played out, when she knew she was going to win, and how she’s feeling about the competition in Gyor, Hungary where she’ll race at the world championships in a few weeks.

The action was hot in the chase group with Pernille Hostrup, Susanna Cicali, Maria Rei, Saskia Hockly, Eva Barrios, Rebecca Mann, and others. Several young athletes put down really impressive performances in the face of challenges, and the final sprint for bronze came down to Pernille Hostrup of Denmark versus Maria Rei of Portugal. The young Hostrup took the medal in the end.

Kitty Schiphorst from the Netherlands, who spoke with Paddlecast in the preview episode, also returned to talk about how the racing went for her. In her first international marathon race ever, she managed to make the top 10! Kitty thinks her surf lifesaving background where she’s used to paddling in difficult ocean conditions gave her an edge in Sunday’s conditions, where she had a blast. Watch out for Kitty in more marathons, maybe…

In the men’s race, sprinter Hamish Lovemore went into the short course on Saturday aiming to beat Mads Brandt Pedersen in a sprint finish, but the world champion marathoner beat him across the line! On Sunday, Mads did it again, with a few extra seconds of margin despite Hamish’s best efforts.

Hamish joined Paddlecast to speak about his race and whether there’s any way he could have taken that gold medal from Mads. He also talks about his upcoming goals for the Sprint World Championships in Milan, and how the bigger field at the Marathon World Championships in Gyor could affect the results in a few weeks.

The men’s chase pack was tight too, and featured major names in the sport including Jose Ramalho, Jeremy Candy, James Russell, Jon Amund Vold, Ivan Alonso… But it was the Hungarian Noe Balint and German Nico Paufler who managed to stay with the two leaders for much of the race in a pack of four, until they too were burnt out by Mads’ and Hamish’s speedy pace. The men gave it their all in exciting sprint finishes for 3rd and 5th place, where Jose Ramalho (Portugal) edged out Jeremy Candy (France) for bronze, and Noe Balint managed to just barely hold off James Russell (Great Britain) for 5th.

Stay tuned and hit ‘subscribe’ to make sure you don’t miss the next episode recapping the legendary Sella Descent, where the race’s winners share what it takes to win!

01:42 The Women’s Race

11:54 Melina Andersson in her own words

25:11 Kitty Schiphorst in her own words

29:04 The Men’s Race

31:13 Hamish Lovemore in his own words

49:20 Looking ahead to World Champs in Gyor

50:41 The Warm Down: Future of dragon boat?