A READING Sea Cadet finished third in the Devizes to Westminster canoe race recently, kayaking for hours at a time over four days.

Simon Tilbury-Clarke, 17, took on the 125-mile race with Stephen Leonard, also 17, and secured the bronze medal in a time of 17 hours, 26 minutes and 31 seconds.

They competed against 90 other pairs in the 15-18 category, kayaking for long periods – including more than five hours on one day – without any rest.

Tilbury-Clarke, a member of Pangbourne Canoe Club, attends Reading Sea Cadets, where he enjoys water-based and land-based activities and helps build other young people’s confidence on the water.

He is now hoping to take a kayaking coaching qualification through sea cadets, which welcomes 10-18-year-olds for adventure.

With the national youth charity, cadets and volunteers can earn nationally-recognised qualifications from organisations such as British Canoeing and the Royal Yachting Association.

The teenager, who is currently revising for his A-levels, said: “I don’t have much free time; any hour I have is spent training, revising and being at sea cadets.

“At sea cadets, I try to focus on helping others. I love helping others to try to improve.”

Tilbury-Clarke is hoping to go to Plymouth University to study mechanical engineering, with the view to becoming an officer in the Royal Navy.

He has been kayaking since he was young and has taken part in the race, which starts in Devizes, Wiltshire, and ends in Westminster, London, twice before.

“It’s a very difficult thing to be doing. It is mentally and physically demanding, but the hardest part is the mental side of it,” he said.

“You stay on a campsite in-between, and you make friends with different people and get through it together. You just hope it won’t hurt the next day – but it does. I’m still aching quite a bit now.

“Training involved a lot of long paddles. Every weekend we would be doing 20 miles. It was tough.”