They just about had to be helped out of their boats afterwards but the young members of the Whanganui Kayak Club gave it everything in the team races at the CRNZ National championships at Lake Karapiro over the weekend.
The crew of Toby Brooke, Aiden Nossiter, Max Brown and Tim Rowe paddled hard in the Open Men's K4 500m final, finishing second against the top New Zealand men's teams.
"Brooke and Rowe then exited one boat to immediately jump into the K2," said club member Lisa Chase.
"With a 15-minute turnaround between races the gutsy Under-18, K2 1000m pair dug deep to come second. The whole Whanganui team [were] on their feet, cheering them on for this epic effort."
On day two on Saturday at the lake, which had choppy water with wind, the club's Masters crew got proceedings off the right way with a gold medal in the Masters K4 500m final.