England Wins World Cup

England might be on their way to the World Cup, but they’ve already won the World Carp. Fishing duo Rob Tough, 45, of Marcet Road, Dartford and Tom Duncan-Dunlop, 36, from Sutton, competed with 126 pairs from 21 different countries to claim the £10,000 first prize at the six-day angling event at a 1,000-hectare lake in Lac de Madine, north-east France.

Despite managing just 12 hours’ sleep throughout the non-stop competition, the duo caught an event-record 26 fish weighing a total of 347.5kg to easily beat their closest rivals, Dutch pair Koos Walters and Bert Teuben (eight fish, 125.65kg) and Robert Ceaus and M Gulke of Germany (eight fish, 123.45kg). Mr Tough, an accountant, said: “This is the highlight of my angling career and I think I can speak for Tom in saying this is the best week we’ve ever had in terms of the magnitude of the event. “The number of fish we caught and the size of them was staggering. We’ve been inundated with messages of congratulations since we got back, it’s a great feeling to have won and it’s one we’d love to repeat next year. “These are the events you live for as anglers.

We were totally exhausted at the end and were surviving on adrenaline alone but we wouldn’t have swapped the sleepless nights and the moments when the fish are taking the bait for anything. You can sleep for the rest of your life, after all.” Anglers from across the globe including South Africa, America, Greece, Turkey, Czech Republic, Poland and Latvia went to France to take part in the 11th running of the World Carp Classic.

Event founder Ross Honey said: “This has been an amazing year with fantastic results. There were more than 600 anglers that could not get places in the competition this year and we are looking at ways on how to deal with the massive demand for 2010. This year has completely rewritten the record books.”