The sand and competition will be hot in Abu Dhabi for the 2025 ICF SUP World Championships. More than 400 paddlers are signed up to race, including many of last year’s champions who are back to defend their titles: Andrey Kraytor (BUL), Katniss Paris (USA), Shuri “Shrimpy” Araki (JPN), Duna Gordillo (ESP), Csillag Kocsis (HUN), and more.

Wednesday and Thursday are jam packed with preliminary rounds, heats, and quarterfinals: sprints on Wednesday, and technicals on Thursday. Friday is when the best action (and the live stream) begin, with semis and finals for sprint; then semis and finals for technicals on Saturday. Sunday is for long distance, a relatively short 10 km this year that may disappoint paddlers who prefer something in the 12-20+ km range, but may prove sensible given the forecasted high of 32 degrees Celsius (90 degrees Fahrenheit).

100m Sprints

2024 was the first year that the ICF sprint races dropped to their current length of 100m, rather than the previous 200m. It meant that the world championship times in Sarasota became the new records for the fastest SUP over 100m. 2025 is an opportunity to break those records.

Men’s race: Can Andrey Kraytor break 20km/hr?

In the men’s open race, Andrey Kraytor is the defending world champion. Kraytor’s 2024 time of 23.05 is already blisteringly fast, but he seems to have plans to take that time down even lower. Back in May, he shared a social media update that he’d hit a top speed of 19.9 km/h on flat water! He hasn’t confirmed publicly yet whether he’s managed to reach the elusive 20 km/h mark since then, but if ever there was a time for it, World Champs is it.

In Sarasota, Kraytor was followed closely by Manuel Hoyuela (ESP), who took silver by less than half a second. Hoyuela was a stand-out in 2024, one of the only paddlers to podium in both the sprint and technical events. With a 5th place finish in long distance, he’s a true all-rounder. But he hasn’t raced as much as some other paddlers in 2025, so it’s hard to predict just how fast he’ll be in Abu Dhabi.

Hoyuela opted to skip all but one EuroTour event this year: the one raced in back in January (Boot Dusseldorf), he won. At the Triple S Festival Melilla in May, a European SUP League event, he finished 5th behind Christian Andersen (DEN), Fernando Perez Serra (ESP), Ethan Bry (FRA), and Ivan Puente (ESP). But since then, he’s been back to the top at the Spanish long distance SUP Aguete (#1 ahead of Sergio Cantoral) and most recently at the Spanish Technical SUP Race Championship in Suances, Cantabria. 

The young Spaniard will certainly be hoping to challenge Andrey in the sprints, and try to repeat, if not better, his results from Sarasota.

Top contenders for the podium in Abu Dhabi also include last year’s bronze medalist from South Africa, Cameron Tripney, as well as Rai Taguchi (JPN), Aaron Sanchez (ESP), Phaedon Doukas (GRE), and Sergio Cantoral (ESP).

Women’s race: Katniss vs. Seychelle Rematch

Katniss’ win in the 100m sprint against Seychelle last year was one of the biggest upsets in Sarasota. But she’s since made it clear that no one should consider her a dark horse. Katniss raced at the Boot Dusseldorf in January, finishing 3rd behind Alba Frey (ESP) and Mariecarmen Rivera (PUR). The reverberation of water in the pool made the buoy sprint format more challenging at the EuroTour event, but pools won’t be a feature in Abu Dhabi (at least not for racing). Katniss was back in Europe again in May to race at the ICF SUP World Cup Sitia, where she was back in the top spot with gold ahead of Mariecarmen in the sprint.

Seychelle Webster, the 2023 sprint world champion, finished just 0.38 of a second behind Katniss in Sarasota. Although she doesn’t have too many sprint race results from 2025, she did have a particularly impressive result from the USA SUP National Championships in Oceanside California – not only did she win the race, she was one of only two paddlers (Soryn Preston being the other) who finished! The conditions were so intense that Soryn’s board broke in half in the shore break and she had to get another board to finish.

Seychelle’s top level track record would typically make her a favourite in this sprint race, but she’s recently opened up about her 2025 priority list, and winning another world title wasn’t at the top. She’s already achieved that #1 goal, her pregnancy! Seychelle is 3 months along and says her priority shift has affected her training: “Training has not been great. With morning, (noon, and night) sickness, poor sleep and extreme fatigue, I’m just doing what I can.” She has “no expectations” for worlds this year, and whatever happens “is just decorations on my celebratory cake.” And yet, no one should be surprised if Seychelle ends up right back at the front of the racing anyway.

The USA vs. USA rematch is by no means guaranteed to determine the gold though, especially if Alba Alonso Frey and Mariecarmen Rivera have something to say about it. Alba finished in 3rd place at last year’s worlds, less than a second behind Katniss. Mariecarmen finished 4th, 1.51 seconds behind. Alba and Mariecarmen finished ahead of Katniss at Boot Dusseldorf, and while Katniss and Mariecarmen went 1-2 at the sprint race in Sitia in May, Alba was busy winning the sprint race at the Triple S Festival in Melilla, Spain. Both Alba and Mariecarmen are great all-round paddlers with Top 7 results across all 3 events (sprint/tech/distance) at last year’s worlds. They’ll have great shots at making the sprint podium, or better, in Abu Dhabi.

A few other names to look out for include Juliette Duhaime (ARG) (5th at worlds in 2024, skipped almost all EuroTour/ESL races in 2025), Melanie Lafenetre (FRA) (multiple world podiums including silver in sprint in 2022 behind April Zilg), Duna Gordillo (ESP), Rika Okuaki (JPN), and Kyriaki Logotheti (GRE).

Juniors to watch

Several of the top junior racers in Abu Dhabi could easily be racing for podium spots against the seniors. The calibre of these Under-18 athletes is stunning. As it is, they’ll make the junior sprint finals some of the best races of the weekend.

In the boys race, Matei Barbu of Romania will be fighting for another title after his win last year in a speedy 24.22. At the ICF SUP World Cup in Sitia in May, Matei finished in second place behind Andrey Kraytor and ahead of Phaedon Doukas. A fantastic result for any paddler, but especially one who’s still a junior.

In the girls race, last year’s 2nd and 3rd place finishers are back for what should be a great showdown. They were only separated by 0.2 of a second in the 2024 sprint and have been competing at the top level. Hanna Kaminska from Poland finished in 3rd place in the Sitia sprint behind top level seniors Katniss and Mariecarmen. Claudia Postiglione (ITA) is fresh from winning Italy’s U18 sprint national championship, and 2nd overall. Fans should enjoy a great rivalry between these two.

And don’t count out Hungarian Csillag Kocsis, who’s had a spate of top results this year coming off double golds at last year’s ICF worlds in the technical and distance races. 5th place in last year’s sprint race was her worst result, so don’t be surprised if she improves on it in Abu Dhabi.

Stay tuned

Follow SUP Racer on social media and at supracer.com to make sure you don’t miss more race previews and recaps. The live stream this year will cover Friday – Sunday, and must be purchased via the @PlanetCanoe YouTube channel subscription. For more on the ICF’s decision to paywall livestreams, check out this episode of Paddlecast.