JAMES Webster rounded off his junior career in style by clinching a silver medal at the ICF Canoe Marathon World Championships in Singapore last weekend.

The 18-year-old, of Horsebrook Park, Calne, finished second for Great Britain in the junior mens’ K2 event, alongside Worcester-based partner Jonny Tye.

The duo had a fifth-placed finish at last year’s World Championships in Banyoles, Spain, and Bradford on Avon Canoe Club member Webster was delighted to claim a medal in his final competition as a junior canoeist.

“It really hasn’t sunk in yet at all and if someone had told me that I’d end up getting a world championship medal when I first started, I would have said ‘are you real?’,” said Webster, who flew back into the country on Monday.

“When we first started training in Singapore, we could only last 10 or 15 minutes because of the heat but it cooled down as the two weeks went on and our race was also quite early in the morning.

“We’d raced against a lot of the other crews before and beaten them too but we still did really well. It’s my last season as a junior and that was the last competition of the year, so I don’t really know what’s going to happen next but I’ve spoken to my coach about it a little bit already.

“I got told after the championships that a boat manufacturer was interested in sponsoring me and that was great to hear.”

Webster is regularly trained by Great Britain coach and three-time Olympian Paul Darby-Dowman, who said: “It was a great achievement by James out in Singapore.

“It caps off a very successful junior paddling career and James has a very exciting future in the sport ahead of him.

“The result is due to his incredible commitment to training over the past few years, training up to 14 times a week throughout the year.”