The Devizes to Westminster International Canoe Marathon is a marathon canoe race in England. The race is held every Easter over a course of 125 miles (201 km) from Devizes in Wiltshire to Westminster in central London. It has been run since 1948. Starting at Devizes wharf, the route follows the Kennet and Avon canal for 54 miles to Reading, where it joins the Thames. Another 54 miles later it reaches Teddington Lock, ending 17 miles later at Westminster Bridge.
Personalities to own a DW medal are former leader of the Liberal Democrats, Paddy Ashdown, explorer Sir Ranulph Fiennes, double Olympic gold medallist rower James Cracknell and Rebecca Stephens, the first woman to climb Everest solo.
In 2011, world champion kayakers Ben Brown and Ivan Lawler attempted to beat the record, but retired after 9 hours and 51 minutes, defeated by wrist injury, exceptionally slow flow on the Thames and a mounting headwind.
Read more about Devizes To Westminster International Canoe Marathon: Route, History, Classes, Similar Races
Famous quotes containing the words canoe and/or marathon:
“There was something refreshingly and wildly musical to my ears in the very name of the white man’s canoe, reminding me of Charlevoix and Canadian Voyageurs. The batteau is a sort of mongrel between the canoe and the boat, a fur-trader’s boat.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“The mountains look on Marathon—
And Marathon looks on the sea;
And musing there an hour alone,
I dreamed that Greece might still be free;
For standing on the Persians’ grave,
I could not deem myself a slave.”
—George Gordon Noel Byron (1788–1824)