Mathews resident Macky Hall, 42, claimed one of the region’s top stand-up paddling (SUP) prizes when he won Washington, D.C.’s Paddle for Humanity 5K race on Saturday.

The race featured an international field of nearly 250 paddlers and is an officially-sanctioned World Paddle Association race. Top-placing competitors accrue valuable points towards an invitation to November’s World SUP Championship in Los Cabos, Mexico.

Avoiding the wind and rain that encompassed much of the region on Saturday, the race began in the Potomac River at Washington’s National Harbor before heading upriver and rounding Roosevelt Island. Hall, co-founder of Mathews-based Chesapeake Boardsports, struggled early in the race.

"The 5K and 10K races started a minute apart," Hall said. "With so many paddlers in the water, I was getting killed by cross-chop, wakes and other paddlers. There was a bit of a pile-up at the first turnaround about (three-quarters of a mile) in and I scored a...