A massive carnival of canoeing and kayaking hits Norwich this weekend as Norwich Canoe Club host the National Kayak and Canoe Marathon Championships at Whitlingham.

There is an expected 1,000 entries in 54 separate race starts today and tomorrow, with paddlers travelling from all over the UK from 65 clubs to try and wrestle the team trophies away from the Norwich club, who are the current holders of both the senior marathon team trophy and the junior under-12 team trophy.

Paddlers will be racing in their single kayaks today and those in contention for individual national titles from Norwich are Tim Pendle in the senior men's race and Lucy-Lee Smith in the junior women's race.

Smith teams up with Livvy Rowe, also from Norwich, tomorrow in the doubles K2 race and Pendle is racing K2 with Andy Daniels from Longridge Canoe Club. Both crews are hot favourites to defend their 2014 titles.

Racing starts at 9am and goes on until 7pm on Saturday and 4pm on Sunday.

Spectators are welcome, there will be food and drinks available, for more information go to www.norwichcanoeclub.co.uk.