2026 European SUP Championships: the Agios Nikolaos medal table
- Published
- 2026-09-21T06:07:47+00:00
- Author
- PaddleStats
Greece topped the medal table at the 2026 European SUP Championships in Agios Nikolaos with 12 gold medals. Thirty-two sets of medals were handed out over three days on Mirabello Bay, and five paddlers won all three races in their category. Poland leaves Crete with three medals, won by Hanna Kamińska and Marta Apanasewicz.
Greece 33 medals, Italy 27 — the 2026 European SUP Championships medal table
The European SUP Championships in Agios Nikolaos ran from 18 to 20 September: sprint on Friday, technical race on Saturday, long distance on Sunday. A total of 232 paddlers started, 227 of them representing 22 nations and five racing as neutral athletes under the AIN designation. Medals went out in 32 events: ten in the sprint, ten in the technical race and twelve over the long distance, where two inflatable-board categories were added. Sunday's races doubled as a World Cup round, so paddlers from outside Europe lined up as well. None of them reached a podium.
| Nation | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Greece | 12 | 10 | 11 | 33 |
| Italy | 9 | 12 | 6 | 27 |
| Romania | 4 | 0 | 2 | 6 |
| Portugal | 2 | 1 | 1 | 4 |
| Germany | 2 | 0 | 1 | 3 |
| Denmark | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Belgium | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Great Britain | 0 | 2 | 2 | 4 |
| Poland | 0 | 2 | 1 | 3 |
| Israel | 0 | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| Spain | 0 | 1 | 4 | 5 |
| Lithuania | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Netherlands | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| AIN | 0 | 0 | 3 | 3 |
| Czechia | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
Greece won none of the six open-category events. The only home paddler on those podiums was Anastasios Tsouris, third over the long distance. All twelve Greek titles came from the age-group categories: six from U14 paddlers, one from a junior in the sprint, three from Penny Tsaoutou among the women over fifty and two from George Fragkos in the 40+ class.
Italy spread its medals differently. Two Italian women won three races each, Sveva Sabato took two of the three junior women's events, and Reza Nasiri won the 50+ long distance. Twelve silvers is more than any other nation collected.
Romania's four titles came from three paddlers. Gabriel Culea won the 50+ sprint and technical race, Matei Barbu the open sprint, and Resul Nuredin the inflatable long distance.
Five paddlers won all three races
The programme let athletes enter all three formats, and five of them won the lot.
Cecilia Pampinella started with the sprint and never gave a race back. The Italian won it in 26.874 and put 0.974 into Hanna Kamińska. A day later she took the technical race in 6:35.112, with Marta Apanasewicz 5.181 behind her. On Sunday she escaped the field over the long distance, winning in 1:31:19.705 while Claudia Postiglione lost two minutes and seven seconds. Claudia Postiglione, second across the line, is 17, and alongside that long-distance silver she took bronze in the technical race. In under a month the 20-year-old Pampinella will race a home World Championships.
Claudia Luchetta did the same in the 40+ class. Behind her every time was her compatriot Vira Lemekha, who lost 0.614 in the sprint, 9.208 in the technical race and a minute and 32 seconds over the long distance.
Penny Tsaoutou defended both of the titles she won here a year ago. In May 2025, on this same bay, the Greek took the 50+ technical race and the long distance; this time she added the sprint. Italy's Anna Occhiogrosso finished three minutes and 34 seconds behind her over the long distance.
Greece swept the U14 races. Vasileios Skarakis won all three: the sprint in 26.512, the technical race in 4:33.596 and the long distance in 15:53.084, with his brother Nikolas second in the last of them. Dimitra Papadimitriou matched him among the girls, and in the technical race the runner-up finished 16.196 behind.
Barbu, Andersen and fourteen thousandths in the junior sprint
Three open men's events produced two winners, and a third paddler reached every one of those podiums.
Matei Barbu won the sprint. The Romanian covered the course in 21.915 and beat Lithuania's Vadim Korobov by 0.126. A year earlier he raced the 2007–2010 junior class here, finishing third in the technical final and second over the long distance. Twelve months on he is a senior European champion in the shortest event on the programme.
Christian Andersen won the other two. On Saturday the Dane beat the Netherlands' Donato Freens by 1.040 in the technical race. On Sunday he took the long distance in 1:18:52.773, with Manuel Hoyuela Rojas 59 seconds back. In the sprint the 25-year-old had been fourth, 1.030 behind Barbu.
Hoyuela Rojas was the only paddler to reach all three open podiums without winning any of them. Bronze in the sprint, bronze in the technical race, silver over the long distance, where he held off Tsouris by 7.909. The Greek repeated his own result from a year ago: he was third over the long distance in May 2025 too.
In the junior women's category two paddlers shared the three races. Greece's Ioanna Papadimitriou won the sprint in 28.870, while Italy's Sveva Sabato took the technical race and the long distance. The same two rivals chased them all weekend: Lisa Venturelli finished with two silvers and a bronze, Erasmia Malekaki with a silver and two bronzes.
Among the men over fifty, Gabriel Culea won the sprint and the technical race, both times ahead of Italy's Daniele Cani. The Romanian did not start the long distance, which another Italian, Reza Nasiri, won in 1:36:51.128. Cani was second again.
The junior men's sprint title came down to a margin nobody on the shore could see. Lourenço Viveiros finished in 22.871, Manos Farsaris in 22.885. Fourteen thousandths of a second. The Portuguese won the technical final the next day too, that one more comfortably, by 10.824 over Gianluca Corriero.
Benyam Bossack won the junior long distance. The German covered the course in 1:23:35.578 and beat Corriero by a minute and 20 seconds, with Viveiros, a double champion by then, fourth. Thirty-three paddlers were classified, more than in any other final of these championships.
The 40+ men's titles were shared. Martin Teichmann won the sprint by 0.803 over George Fragkos, and the Greek answered by winning the technical race and the long distance. That class had belonged to Alex Prapas, winner of both longer events here a year ago. This time he finished the long distance second, three minutes and six seconds behind his compatriot.
Seven paddlers reached all three podiums in their category without winning a race. Lemekha collected the most of them: three silvers in the 40+ women's class plus a bronze in the inflatable long distance. Hoyuela Rojas, Cani, Maxey, Venturelli, Malekaki and U14 paddler Yvoni Papakonstantinou took three each.
Three Polish medals, all in the open women's category
Both Polish medallists raced the open women's category, and all three medals came in the first two days.
Hanna Kamińska finished second in the sprint in 27.848. The 19-year-old from RTW Racibórz had won the junior women's technical final here a year earlier in 6:10.576. Racing the open category now, she was seventh in Saturday's A final in 7:18.044.
Marta Apanasewicz won two medals. The SKŻ Ergo Hestia Sopot paddler was third in the sprint, 0.860 behind Kamińska. A day later she was second in the technical race: 6:40.293, holding off Claudia Postiglione by 0.563. In the same event a year ago she did not make it out of the heats.
Mikołaj Majdan came closest to a podium among the Polish men. The 24-year-old, also from SKŻ Ergo Hestia Sopot, finished fourth in the technical final, 7.268 behind third-placed Hoyuela Rojas, and sixth over the long distance in 1:24:33.050. He improved on both of his results from a year ago, when he was seventh in the technical race and tenth over the long distance. Piotr Hertel was 14th in the long distance.
Kacper Jaroc took 17th in the junior men's long distance and Miłosz Sytnik 23rd among 33 classified finishers. Sytnik also raced the sprint, where he was third in the B final.
What's next: a World Cup on the same bay, then the Worlds in Sabaudia
Racing on Mirabello Bay carries on. The ICF Stand Up Paddling World Cup began in Agios Nikolaos on Sunday and runs to 23 September: same water, same organisers, but a field open to paddlers from outside Europe. The World Cup season opened in late June at Torbay.
The season closes at the ICF World Championships in Sabaudia from 14 to 18 October. Pampinella and Luchetta will race at home there. Kamińska and Apanasewicz get to test the form they found on Crete against a global field.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which nation topped the 2026 European SUP Championships medal table?
Greece, with 12 gold, 10 silver and 11 bronze medals, 33 in all. Italy was second with nine titles and 27 medals, Romania third with four titles.
Who won all three races?
Five paddlers: Cecilia Pampinella in open women, Claudia Luchetta in the 40+ class, Penny Tsaoutou in the 50+ class, and Vasileios Skarakis and Dimitra Papadimitriou in U14. Nobody managed it in open men.
What did Poland win?
Three medals, all in the open women's category. Marta Apanasewicz took silver in the technical race and bronze in the sprint, Hanna Kamińska silver in the sprint.
What were the winning open sprint times?
Matei Barbu won the men's sprint in 21.915, Cecilia Pampinella the women's in 26.874.
Did Greece dominate these championships?
On the medal table, yes: 33 of the 96 medals and 12 of the 32 titles. In the six open-category events, though, the hosts won nothing, and their only podium there was Anastasios Tsouris's long-distance bronze. Six of the twelve Greek titles came from U14 paddlers.
Are the Polish paddlers closer to a first title than a year ago?
A year earlier in Agios Nikolaos, Hanna Kamińska won in the junior women's category and Marta Apanasewicz failed to get through the technical heats. This time both won medals in the open category, and Kamińska was 0.974 short of winning the sprint.
Will Cecilia Pampinella go to Sabaudia as the favourite?
On Crete she won all three races, the long distance by two minutes and seven seconds. A World Championships is a different field, though: a year ago on this same bay the women's technical race and long distance were both won by Marie-Carmen Rivera of Puerto Rico.
How do the three SUP formats differ?
The sprint is one short course, settled in anything from a dozen to a few dozen seconds, with heats and semi-finals. The technical race runs a buoy course with turns, and the best finish it in around six minutes. The long distance took the leading paddlers in Agios Nikolaos from 1:18:52 upwards, while the U14 races used a much shorter course, where the winning time was 15:53.084.
Pampinella won all three races in Agios Nikolaos, Andersen the two longer ones, Barbu the sprint. The World Championships in Sabaudia start on 14 October, where paddlers from the rest of the world join them, and some of the field stays on Crete first for the World Cup in Agios Nikolaos.