Explain the centripetal force or Newton's second law...

a centripetal force is toward the center of curvature, the same as the direction of centripetal acceleration. According to Newton's second law of motion, net force is mass times acceleration: net . For uniform circular motion, the acceleration is the centripetal acceleration

Explanation:

when jerome paddle in flowing river towards east the net speed of jerome will increase

so the net speed of jerome will be given as

now the speed of paul will be same as it is given as he is running on the ground

so

so here we can say since the speed of jerome is more so he will win the race

now as we know the distance so the time difference is given as

so jerome will reach first and the time difference will be 203.55 s or 3.4 min