The 2023 ICF SUP World Championships is currently taking place in Pattaya, Thailand, with a huge number of participants competing across the five days of competition between 15-19 November.
There's a lot of British athletes competing, and we're working with SUPJunkie, who has provided a round up of the first two days of competition, as the Sprint racing comes to an end.
With three more days of racing still to go for Distance and Tech, keep following the channels to see how the British team get on.
Photos: Georgia Schofield
Words: SUPJunkie
Wow, what a start to the GB campaign at the 2023 ICF World Championships being held in Pattaya, Thailand.
Not only is the weather steaming but so are the athletes! Temperatures in Pattaya have been languishing in the mid-30 degrees with humidity incredibly high.
The ICF is running their usual tight ship regarding timings, and they have to with 163 rounds of 8 athletes paddling at speeds touching 9 mph over 200 metres. Every 3 minutes another 8 paddlers are launched down the course.
So how did we do? For the men, we had Al Hughes (40+) who reached the SF so three great rounds of paddling from him in what we believe is his first ever International competition.
Our best placing for the men came from Blue Ewer who paddled six rounds over the two days narrowly missing out on the A Final. In the B Final he smashed his way to 1st placing ranking him 9 overall in the World beating nearly 80 others at the competition in the process – a great result for this very in form British athlete.
Hector Jessel (our only Junior at the competition) made a strong effort qualifying well for the quarter-final race where he was just squeezed out of the competition by coming in 5th.
Steven Bishop (40+) also got through to the quarter finals – he's been well supported on his journey by the Royal Air Force.
Ireland’s Gary McClure qualified for the 50+ QF but sadly progressed no further. Ross McGarry also put up a good show qualifying to R2 where he was also knocked out.
And the ladies? We start with Anni Ridsdill Smith (50+) who is always a positive force to be reckoned with and she paddled 2 great rounds getting herself into a QF.
Holly Pye breezed her way through round 1 in 2nd place and straight into the main draw but was sadly pipped in the QF but came in a strong 5th
Verity Thomas from Jersey paddled hard for four rounds and was 4th in the B Final for the 40+ women, which means she is now 12th in the World. We are so happy for VJ as she was injured during the last ICF competition in Poland.
Natalie Rendle was paddling in the 40+ class, coming in strong to take 3rd in her opening round. Having qualified for the QF, she was a credible 5th.
Sara Maxey paddling in the 40+ class, also qualified for the QF and came in 7th.
Marie Buchanan, our most experienced paddler from the UK, took a 2nd, 2nd and 3rd to take her into the A Final for the 50+ women – a super strong performance in her least favoured discipline which took her to 6th in the World. Marie continues to be an inspiration to us all with her incredible longevity in the international racing scene.
We must applaud all our athletes for getting themselves to the start line in Thailand and for putting on some wonderful sprinting, so exciting to watch!
Get ready for the Long Distance and Tech races which start with the Distance on Friday at 8:20 am local time. We wish all our athletes the very best of luck.
You can watch all the action here:
And you can keep in touch with all the scores LIVE here: https://memosoft.spotfokus.com...