Paddleboarder who rescued woman from Coogee shark attack wins world title in record time

Charlie Verco, who rescued Leah Stewart in June, is ‘stoked’ to claim his fourth championship in Hawaii

The Australian paddleboarder Charlie Verco has claimed his fourth world championship in Hawaii in record time – weeks after he rescued a Sydney woman who was attacked by a great white shark.

The 25-year-old crossed the line in the gruelling 52km Molokai to Oahu Paddleboard race in 4 hours, 18 minutes and 3 seconds on Sunday, eclipsing the previous mark set by fellow Australian Matt Bevilacqua in 2019 by three minutes.

Verco’s record time is the culmination of years of dominance in the event. Yet it was an achievement that he did not take for granted.

“I’m so stoked,” Verco said after traversing the ocean linking two of Hawaii’s islands.

“It’s always a challenge getting across the channel and each year it dishes up something different.”

In June, as Verco prepared for the event, one of his training sessions off Coogee beach was interrupted by cries of help from Leah Stewart, who had been bitten by a shark.

Verco, a trained surf life saver, paddled her to shore as she lost consciousness.

Stewart, a 34-year-old teacher with a young daughter, survived and had five surgeries in the days that followed, including an arm amputation.

“The shark surfaced, I saw its dorsal fin – it was big, about 3.5 metres,” Verco told Guardian Australia at the time . “I’ve only ever seen one shark bigger than that, and that was a tiger shark in Hawaii.”

Verco said Stewart disappeared and then reappeared and he managed to help her to grab hold of part of his board as he paddled. “I had to try and keep hold of her with one hand and keep paddling towards shore with the other.”

The 27th running of the Molokai race, the world championships of paddleboarding, was more straightforward.

Verco finished almost 50 minutes ahead of second place in the “unlimited” paddleboard class of the event, which is widely considered to be the ultimate test in open-water paddling.

“Today for the first three hours I just caught the bumps I felt like catching, and if I felt like they were going under me that was OK.

“I got to three hours and the bumps started picking up again. I was like, ‘Dad, should I see what I can do?’ and Dad couldn’t hear me because he’s deaf, but George [his brother] said, ‘hell yeah let’s do it’.”

The North Bondi resident had sights on the record last year but finished more than 40 minutes outside Bevilacqua’s mark.

“Last year I got a bit ahead of myself and started chasing time because I wasn’t sure if I was going to ever come back. It just told you a lesson and showed that you’ve only got to work with what’s in front of you.

“This year my goal was just to have fun with it. It was the same attitude I had for all my training: not to be so stressed about getting all the miles and all the time in the water.”