Sport
7 May, 2025
Third time's a charm for Gregory River Canoe Marathon champ
Chris Barnes said he was thrilled to win the iconic paddle race at his third attempt.
A staggered start after some unexpected carnage at the first rapid may have taken away the drama from the finish, but that didn’t make victory less sweet for Chris Barnes.
The Hervey Bay visitor was the first solo paddler across the line in the 50th anniversary Gregory River Canoe Marathon, but had to wait to see if he’d actually won, having started well before some of his rivals.
When North West Canoe Club president Steve Jenje crossed the line next, albeit quite a while after Barnes, the judges had to get their calculators out to determine the margin.
Forty-one seconds was the gap, giving Barnes his first win from his third attempt in the iconic race.
“I’m very happy,” he said after it was confirmed that he had taken out the milestone event.
“I’ve been here three times and broken three boats ... this was a borrowed boat after I damaged mine the other day.
“I’ve always finished but I’ve had to sticky tape them up along the way.”
There were thoughts that a new record might have been set at this year’s race, considering the flow of water was at the highest level on a race day for some time – if not ever – but it turns out the river was too quick for the paddlers, who had to slow down to manoeuvre through some of the difficult rapids on the 42km course.
Barnes stopped the clock in a time of 3:28.09, more than half an hour outside of the record.
“The river was beautiful with that extra bit of flow,” he told North West Weekly.
“I was very happy with my run, I can’t speak for others.
“We came here and had a paddle on Thursday – we did the whole course on Thursday and a little bit on Friday.”
Barnes said he came unstuck a couple of times on the course.
“I had a couple of rollouts in the pandanus – I got caught up with some of the short-coursers and I didn’t get the line right,” he said.
“We’re not paddling for sheep stations so I just rolled out and picked them back up again.”
Barnes said he would return to defend his title next year, having fallen in love with Gregory.
“The community up here is just something pretty special. I just love that three-day drive into the nothingness,” the 56-year-old said with a smile.