ELSTEAD-BASED kayaker, Paul Wycherley, has had an international marathon season to remember so far in 2003. In June, the Wey Kayak Club (Guildford) member teamed up with club-mate Ed Cox to win gold at the Marathon World Cup held in Bergen in Norway. Over a gruelling 22km course on the Gamlehaugen lake in King Harald V's private park, the British 17-year-olds saw off some strong opposition with an awesome display of power paddling in the junior K2 race.

By the first portage the Australian crew were falling back from the leaders and coming into the second portage at the halfway mark, the Hungarians were losing touch. Then disaster struck, or seemed to. For some miles Wycherley's left leg had been gradually losing all feeling and, as he clambered from the boat, it collapsed beneath him. However, Cox picked up the boat and ran to the end of the portage, leaving his partner to hobble after him.

The leading Norwegians, eager to do well on home water, must have felt the race was theirs. But the British duo, by now a crowd favourite for this gutsy effort, thought differently. "We simply went into fast cruise mode", said Wycherley afterwards. "We knew they couldn't live with our pace on the water".

So it proved as the Guildford lads paddled effortlessly past the home crew and over the final few kilometres quietly extended their lead. So, without having to resort to the usual power blast at the finish, the British duo eased home by over 17 seconds.

Hot on the heels of this success, Wycherley went to Gdansk in Poland and returned from the European Marathon Championships with an excellent fourth place under his belt.

The Godalming College student set out in determined mood and was handsomely rewarded, despite not getting the best of starts in the junior K1 event. He still managed to haul himself back into the lead group comprising a Hungarian, a Spaniard, and a giant 6' 8" Swede, all a year older than the Briton. This threesome put in a fast burst as they came to the first portage one-third of the way into the 21 km race and dropped the Briton. Wycherley simply got calmly back into the water and got his head down to claw his way back onto the leaders' tail.

Second time round on the three-lap course and the same burst of power again dropped the Elstead man, but once more the gap was closed on the water. Only a late 'burn' saw Wycherley finally dropped in the race for the line, and he finished just outside the medal positions, a mere 32 seconds behind the Hungarian winner and well ahead of the fifth placed Czech.

Even more recently, Paul Wycherley competed in the National Marathon Championships at Worcester, and returned home as Under-18 champion after dispatching the opposition with apparent ease in the 12-mile K1 race. Settling into the lead group for the first couple of miles, he upped the pace after the first turn to arrive back at the portage at the end of the first of two laps over a minute to the good. Thereafter he steadily destroyed the opposition to win gold by a massive three minutes, and as he clambered from the water he hardly seemed to have broken sweat.

As if to underline his new-found celebrity status, Wycherley was asked to hand out the prizes to the U/10 and U/12 categories at that evening's prize-giving.

He was again in the thick of it in the K2 event, paired with Irish paddler Ciaran Fleming. With no pre-race practice and in a boat with no pump, the lads steered the boat to second place, by a mere two seconds, behind the Elmbridge crew of Michael Goodall and John Sawers.

"We shipped so much water it's a wonder we didn't sink," said Wycherley afterwards. "It was like dragging round a third crew member."