The sand and competition are heating up 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). Read SUP Racer’s sprint racing preview here.

It was the biggest drama at last year’s worlds in Sarasota, and the best spectating of the weekend. It’s the technical.

As the name suggests, the tech race requires the highest level of skill of any typical type of race. It’s not so much about the pure athleticism needed to make a board go fast for 100m, or tough it out for 10km until every muscle is screaming in pain. It takes a combination of balance, precision, strategy, and often mental strength to come out on top in a competitive tech race. It’s the ultimate challenge for the racers. And for the spectators? It’s like barrel racing on the water. About as good as racing gets.

The women’s race: Can Duna defend her title, or is it Mariecarmen’s time to shine?

Once it’s down to the final 8 women in the A Final, any paddler could take the win. That’s what last year’s race proved when it was Duna Gordillo (ESP) who emerged from the chaos unscathed to become world champion, despite not being the first board to the initial buoy turn.

Duna is back to defend her title, and won both her heat and quarterfinal today to prove she’s not messing around. In Quarterfinal II, Duna was followed by two of her fellow 2024 A Finalists: Rika Okuaki (JPN) and Seychelle Webster (USA). They still have to make it through the semifinals on Saturday, but it would be surprising if these three don’t make the A Final again this year.

Rika hasn’t raced much internationally this year since the Spring SUP Race in Italy, where she missed out on the A final and had to settle for winning the B final. But looking at her performance in the quarter final today, just 5.6 seconds behind Duna, she could very well end up on the podium again to repeat or even improve on her bronze medal last year.

2024’s silver medallist, the legend that is Espe Barreras, is not racing in Abu Dhabi. Her absence will be felt greatly, particularly in the technical and distance finals where she’s collected more than a half dozen medals since 2019 at ICF worlds.

The rest of last year’s A finalists have all just qualified for the semifinals and will certainly be targeting a podium spot: Juliette Duhaime (ARG), Alba Alonso Frey (ESP), Natsumi Baba (JPN), and Mariecarmen Rivera (PUR). Mariecarmen and Juliette had been amongst the first three to that first buoy last year before all the chaos, so they may feel particularly focussed on improving on their 2024 results this year.

Mariecarmen racked up the most medals during the six week burst of racing in Europe that ended in May. Every technical race she entered, she won: ICF SUP World Cup Sitia, Agios Nikolaos, Sancti Petri, and the World SUP Festival Santa Pola. And with two of those wins (Sancti Petri & Santa Pola) coming against Duna, she’s been looking unstoppable.

Mariecarmen wasn’t the only one to get the best of Duna this season: at the Triple S Festival Melilla, Alba Frey took first place with Duna in second. And when Mariecarmen won in Santa Pola, Alba took the silver ahead of Duna. Alba has finished in 5th place at ICF World Champs for the last two years, but if she’s paddling this weekend like she was paddling in May, she could be a strong contender for the podium or even the win. In her quarterfinal today, she took a strong win ahead of Juliette Duhaime and set the fastest time of the quarterfinals: 6:04.56.

The semifinals are scheduled for 11:30am Abu Dhabi time on Saturday, with the A Final at 4:50pm. Whatever the finish order, this one race should make for fantastic viewing.

The men’s race: Shrimpy’s first tech title?

There are some big names missing from the entry list in Abu Dhabi, and the open men’s technical race is one of the most severely affected. The Garioud brothers, Noic and Vaic, are not racing. Nor is Christian “Polar Bear” Andersen. That’s 3 of last year’s top 8 not on the start line, including the reigning world champion Noic Garioud (FRA).

It means there’s a 100% chance we get a new world champion, since no other previous technical world champ is entered (Connor Baxter 2022 & 2023; Noic Garioud 2024 & 2021; Lincoln Dews 2019).

The top contender has to be last year’s runner-up, the boy who has seemed unbeatable this year, the young Shuri “Shrimpy” Araki. In that six week burst of European racing from the end of April to early May, Shrimpy took the win in every technical and distance event he entered: he totalled 7 gold medals from the ICF SUP World Cup Sitia (tech only), Agios Nikolaos, Sancti Petri (tech only), the World SUP Festival Santa Pola, and BCN SUP Fest (distance only).

Shrimpy set the fastest time in the quarterfinals today (5:24.91), but only 0.8 of a second ahead of his teammate Rai Taguchi (JPN). Taguchi might be Shrimpy’s biggest competitor in the final – he’s the reigning ISA technical world champion. He hasn’t raced internationally much this year, while he’s been busy moving from Okinawa to Okayama and opening a SUP shop. But don’t underestimate his fitness. On social media, Taguchi said that despite his busy schedule: “I’ve been training every day, so I’m in better shape than ever.”

Manu Hoyuela (ESP), who finished in 3rd place last year behind Noic and Shrimpy, could well earn a podium spot again this year. He was a stand-out all-rounder last year with top 5 results in sprint, tech, and distance races. You can read more about his 2025 season results in the SUP Racer sprint racing preview. Manu and his compatriot Sergio Cantoral had a slower quarterfinal, but both easily locked in their spots to qualify for the semifinals. With ambitious goals across all three race categories again this year, Manu will be smart to conserve his energy as much as possible through the qualifying rounds – don’t be surprised if he only picks up the pace when it really matters.

Manu and Sergio are just the tip of the iceberg for Team Spain, which has qualified 8 of the 16 semifinal spots. Aaron Sanchez and Fernando Perez Serra set two of the fastest times of the day in Quarterfinal I. Plus there’s Antonio Morillo, Ivan Puente, Lluis Perotti Ferriol, and Anton Sans Alvarez. Last year’s A final featured Manu, Aaron, and Antonio. But it wouldn’t be shocking to see even more Spaniards in the A final this year.

Dutchman Donato Freens missed out on the A Final last year, but looking at his more recent results, he should be aiming for the podium in Abu Dhabi. Donato was the second most “winningest” paddler during the May burst of racing: he podiumed 5 times at the Battle for Hercules, ICF SUP World Cup Sitia, Agios Nikolaos, and Sancti Petri. A couple weeks later, he also went on to win the Lake Rocks festival distance race. Today, he won Quarterfinal IV in 5:29.11, the 5th fastest time of the day. While he’s arguably more of a long distance specialist, he’ll certainly be hoping to make the A final (or better) in this year’s tech race.

And one more name who might be a bit of a dark horse – look out for Nariakira Shimazu of Japan. He finished second in Quarterfinal IV, earning him a good seed in the semifinal. Nari’s name jumped out in a big way last year when he won the junior boys tech race and finished in second in the distance race. Now racing his first year in the open category, he might just beat more paddlers than you’d expect.

The juniors: Csillag looks untouchable in the girls race, while the boys field is wide open

Csillag Kocsis (HUN) took a solid win last year ahead of Cecilia Pampinella (ITA), and the Hungarian seems to have only gotten faster this year. She’s proven that she can challenge the best in the world not just amongst the juniors, but the seniors as well. Unfortunately, Cecilia isn’t racing this year and since she’s aged out of the junior category, wouldn’t have been able to challenge Csillag anyway.

Will anyone be able to challenge Csillag? It seems extraordinarily unlikely. Csillag won her quarterfinal today in 6:06, more than 22 seconds faster than the next fastest time of the day which went to Alexia Soto of Spain. And had she been racing the senior women, it would have been the second fastest time of the quarterfinals behind Alba Frey. It’s hard to overstate just how good Csillag is.

In the boys race, it’s wide open. The 2024 champ Nari is now racing open, so it’ll be a new junior boys champion. Last year’s bronze medallist, Simon Ackermann, is also racing open. And the silver medallist, Nicolo Ricco, isn’t racing in Abu Dhabi.

The three fastest times of the day from the quarterfinals were João Lourenço Pimenta Viveiros (POR), 2024 junior sprint champ Matei Barbu (ROU), and Elliot Bry (FRA). It’s anyone’s race, but if this group of boys is anything like the ones in last year’s A final, the open men will have to watch out for them in the next couple of years.

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.