The 45th edition of the Amsterdam Waterland Marathon has been won by South-African Sean Rice. He beat the 2016 winner Leonel Ramalho from Portugal and Adrián Boros from Hungary to the finish line in tough weather conditions. Lizzie Broughton won the seniors women race yet again for the third consecutive time.
The total field of 134 paddlers had to deal with the Dutch weather and water which made the 45th series another very tough edition. In the 24 km mens field of 87 paddlers it were the top athletes s from Hungary, Spain, Portugal, Germany and Italy that kept a very high pace till the first portage. The first three km a big group of 12 lead the race, after the first bridhge a lead pack of five managed to take off from the rest of the field. Three from this lead pack of paddlers managed to escape after the first portage and could not be caught by their pursuers.
In the final two kilometers it was Sean Rice who had the most strength left, he dropped Adrián Boros and was left with a hard sprint to the finish line to win, just before Leonel Ramalho.
Lizzie Broughton had a solid race chasing the junior lead pack all the way to the end. The two Dutch paddlers Eef Haaze and Hedy Pol could not keep her pace but ended up with a good second and third place which completed the ladies senior podium.
The junior race has been won by Hungarian paddler Mathias Majores who raced in a group of three together with Rien Coppens and Kobe Pannecoucke. In the junior ladies race the top three consisted of Amber van Broekhoven, Joke Plas and Ardis Luda.
More pictures and videos will follow soon!
Unofficial race results can be found below, time correction on 24 km race is + two minutes.