GARY MAWER, Ireland's leading long distance paddler, finished second in the World Marathon Championships in Sweden to take K1 silver from a race in which he missed victory by a matter of inches after 26 miles.
A head-to-head sprint to the finish saw the medal places separated by less than a second; Mawer was just .39 behind the Australian, Chadleigh Meek and a fraction in front of Rui Cacio from Portugal.
Two and a half hours earlier, Mawer had been at the back of the 51-strong field after a bad starting draw.
Mawer's silver, the first Irish medal at this level, comes at a good time. Speculation is building around Olympic moves to replace the costly slalom event with a marathon, so Mawer now has hopes for Sydney 2000.
Should the move go through at November's Canoeing Congress, it will be salt in the wound for Inn Wiley's season. Wiley was racing in the Prague leg of the World Slalom Series yesterday and a five-second penalty for touching a pole cost him 23 places. Unpenalised, his time would have given him second place behind the Slovenian, Marusic. Wiley goes into the next month's final in Brazil needing a high placing to count for his best three results.
