Jenny caps fine season by winning national canoeing championships (From Runcorn and Widnes World)

Jenny caps fine season by winning national canoeing championships

3:20pm Thursday 3rd November 2011 in Sport

A RUNCORN canoeist has capped off another fine season by becoming a senior national champion at the age of 18.

Jenny Illidge won the National Marathon Championships in Worcester by 50 seconds.

She was the youngest in the competition by four years but is no stranger to success.

The Runcorn Canoe Club U23 team captain, who runs training session for the younger paddlers at her club, won the first junior World Cup race of the season and finished fourth in round two.

She has been to Spain for the Junior World Marathon Championships, in which she was seventh in the K1 category and ninth in K2.

Six medals came her way at the National Sprints at Holme Pierrepont in Nottingham.

Illidge first started kayaking at the age of nine and within months had entered her first race, the National Sprint Regatta.

Her potential started to show when she gained her first major achievement; winning the 1,000m U12 National Sprint Lightning Cup Series.

She quickly accumulated national titles in K1 and K2 events over 500m, 1000m and marathon events. She is a junior and senior Great Britain international over the marathon distances.