2026 SUP World Championships preview: Rivera defends three titles in Sabaudia
- Published
- 2026-10-12T12:52:11+00:00
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- PaddleStats
Full competition results: ICF Stand Up Paddling World Championships - Sabaudia
The 2026 ICF Stand Up Paddling World Championships begin on Wednesday, 14 October, in Sabaudia, Italy, with 24 world titles at stake over five days. Mariecarmen Rivera of Puerto Rico swept the three women's open titles in Abu Dhabi last year and returns to defend all three. The provisional start lists feature 782 athletes from 55 countries, plus a group of neutral athletes (AIN), across the sprint, technical and long-distance events.
The championships in numbers: 782 athletes, three disciplines, 24 titles
Sabaudia was not the original host. The championships were awarded to Taormina and Giardini Naxos in Sicily, but Cyclone Harry damaged the Ionian coast early in 2026. In March, the ICF relocated the event to Lago di Paola, a lagoon between the Tyrrhenian Sea and Circeo National Park, about 90 km south of Rome. Sprint racing opens the programme, followed by the technical events, with long-distance racing on the final day.
| Discipline | Distance | Qualifying | Finals | Entries | Open finals (local time) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sprint | 100 m | Wed 14 Oct | Fri 16 Oct | 676 | women 16:00, men 16:10 |
| Technical race | 900 m | Thu 15 Oct | Sat 17 Oct | 679 | women 17:45, men 17:55 |
| Long distance | 11.5 km | none | Sun 18 Oct | 707 | men 13:30, women 13:35 |
This will be the seventh edition of the championships. The inaugural event took place in Qingdao in 2019. After the pandemic forced the cancellation of the 2020 edition, the championships returned in Balatonfüred (2021), followed by Gdynia (2022), Pattaya (2023), Sarasota (2024) and Abu Dhabi (2025). This is the third edition in Europe. Open, junior and masters athletes race on 14-foot boards. The technical race covers 900 metres with several buoy turns, so it rewards board handling as well as straight-line speed.
World titles will be awarded in eight categories in each discipline: open, junior, masters 40+ and masters 50+, for men and women. The largest fields are in the men's 50+ category, with 136 entries in the sprint, 128 in the technical race and 148 in the long-distance event. The corresponding figures for the men's open category are 107, 106 and 101.
Hosts Italy have the largest team with 108 athletes, ahead of Spain with 103 and Greece with 60. Spain's strength in numbers is particularly evident in the open categories: 20 of the 107 men in the sprint and 10 of the 64 women are Spanish. Hungary (46), Germany (45), France (43) and Poland (38) round out the seven largest teams. The programme also includes children's races in the under-12 and under-15 categories, an inflatable board race, a foil sprint and a fun race.
Rivera defends three titles as Europe's leading contenders close in
Rivera won the sprint, the technical race and the long distance in Abu Dhabi. In the technical race and over the long distance, Spain's Duna Gordillo and Alba Alonso Frey took silver and bronze respectively. All three will contest every discipline in Sabaudia.
Rivera has finished on the long-distance podium at each of the past two championships. She was runner-up to Esperanza Barreras in 2024 before taking the title a year later. Barreras won three consecutive long-distance titles in 2022, 2023 and 2024. The Spaniard, born in 1983, is once again entered in all three disciplines.
The biggest shift in the competitive picture has come in the sprint. Cecilia Pampinella, a 20-year-old Italian, swept all three titles at September's European Championships in Agios Nikolaos, winning the sprint in 26.874 seconds. Four days later, she won the World Cup sprint on the same course in 26.960 seconds. In Sabaudia, she will have the home crowd behind her.
Seychelle Webster of the United States has won a sprint medal at each of the past three World Championships: gold in 2023, silver in 2024 and bronze in 2025. She is entered in the sprint and the long distance, but not in the technical race.
There are no seeded athletes in the women's open sprint. All 64 competitors will race in eight heats on Wednesday, with the top four in each advancing to Friday's four semi-finals. The top two from each semi-final will progress to the eight-woman final. One poor performance in the heats could end a medal challenge.
The World Cup sprint final on 22 September was decided by six hundredths of a second. Hanna Kamińska of Poland finished second in 27.020 seconds, just 0.060 seconds behind Pampinella. Her teammate Marta Apanasewicz was third in 27.910 seconds.
Both Polish paddlers made substantial gains over those four days. At the European Championships, Kamińska had finished second in 27.848 seconds and Apanasewicz third in 28.708. Each cut roughly eight tenths of a second from her time on the same course, while Pampinella was 0.086 seconds slower in the World Cup final.
Kamińska, born in 2007, competed as a junior last year and won sprint bronze at the 2025 World Championships. Apanasewicz, born in 2004, won two bronze medals at the World Cup, in the sprint and the technical race, as well as silver in the technical race at the European Championships. Kamińska has been drawn in sprint heat 7 and technical heat 1, while Apanasewicz will race in heat 8 in both events. Neither is entered in the long distance.
The European form guide is less clear-cut in the technical race. Kyriaki Logotheti of Greece won the World Cup technical final and Csillag Kocsis of Hungary, the 2025 junior long-distance world champion who now competes in the open category, was second. Both are entered in Sabaudia, as are Japan's Rika Okuaki, the 2024 technical bronze medallist, and Argentina's Juliette DuHaime, who won sprint silver and technical bronze in 2023 and long-distance bronze in 2024.
Every past men's sprint champion is on the start list
Four men have shared the open sprint title across the six previous editions: Connor Baxter in 2019 and 2022, Noïc Garioud in 2021 and 2023, Andrii Kraitor in 2024 and Sergio Cantoral in 2025. All four are entered.
Their paths to the final differ. Twenty seeded athletes will advance directly to Wednesday afternoon's heats. Their seeding is based on the rankings: Manuel Hoyuela of Spain first, Italy's Tommaso Pampinella third and Cantoral fourth. Baxter, Garioud and Kraitor are all unseeded. They will begin in the first preliminary round at 9:00 on Wednesday, alongside the other unseeded competitors. That round features 87 men across eleven heats, with the top five in each progressing. A second preliminary round follows before the main heats. An unseeded athlete must complete five races to reach Friday's final, compared with three for a seeded paddler.
Hoyuela is also the top seed in the technical race, ahead of Donato Freens of the Netherlands and Phaedon Doukas of Greece. The Spaniard won sprint silver and technical bronze at the 2024 World Championships. At this year's Europeans he was third in the technical race and second over the long distance, 59 seconds behind Christian Andersen of Denmark, who won both.
The defending technical champion is Aarón Sánchez of Spain. He beat Japan's Shuri Araki in Abu Dhabi, before Araki reversed the result in the long-distance race. Araki, born in 2006, has won the long distance at the last two World Championships. His rivals over the 11.5 km course in Sabaudia will also include Michael Booth of Australia, champion in 2019 and 2022, and Garioud, champion in 2023.
Vadim Korobov of Lithuania, the 2025 sprint silver medallist, finished second in the sprint at September's European Championships, 0.126 seconds behind Romania's Matei Barbu. Both will compete in Sabaudia, but in different categories: Korobov in open and Barbu, born in 2008, in the juniors.
Poland's Mikołaj Majdan is among the 20 seeded sprinters, with seed number 25, and is seeded ninth in the technical race. He was fourth in the technical race at the Europeans, 7.268 seconds behind Hoyuela, and sixth over the long distance in 1:24:33.050. Piotr Hertel is one of six other Poles in the open men's field.
Juniors and masters: the defending champions are back
Several junior and masters champions from 2025 return to defend their titles. Italy's Claudia Postiglione won the junior sprint in Abu Dhabi, while her teammate Sveva Sabato took the junior technical title. Japan's Tatsuma Nishikawa won the junior men's technical race and long distance. Portugal's Lourenço Viveiros, runner-up in the technical race, is seeded second in the sprint and fifth in the technical race.
The top seed in both events is Poland's Miłosz Sytnik, born in 2009. At the World Cup in Agios Nikolaos he reached the A finals of the sprint and the technical race. His teammate Kacper Jaroc is seeded 13th in the sprint.
Among the masters, Greece's Penny Tsaoutou won all three 50+ titles at the Europeans and claimed the 50+ long-distance title in Abu Dhabi. Two Germans defend titles from Abu Dhabi: Peter Weidert won the 50+ sprint and technical race, while Manuel Lauble took the 40+ sprint and long-distance titles. Canada's Edith Turcotte won the 50+ sprint and technical race. Italy's Claudia Luchetta won all three 40+ titles at the Europeans.
What's next: Kemer closes the ranking season
The championships close on Sunday at 17:00, after the medal ceremonies for the long-distance and inflatable board races. They are the final major event of the 2026 ICF SUP World Ranking Series, which has already included the World Cup in Torbay in June, followed in September by the European Championships and the World Cup in Agios Nikolaos. One more ranking event will follow: the SUP Cup Kemer 2026 in Türkiye from 28 October.
Ranking points already matter in Sabaudia: they determine the seeding that allows 20 men to bypass the sprint preliminary rounds. World Championships and World Cups offer the full allocation of points, while international ranking events award 75 per cent of that total.
Full results from Agios Nikolaos are in our recaps of the European Championships and the World Cup technical finals.
Frequently asked questions
When and where are the 2026 SUP World Championships?
From 14 to 18 October 2026 in Sabaudia, Italy, on Lago di Paola. The event was moved there from Sicily in March after Cyclone Harry.
What are the race distances in Sabaudia?
The sprint is 100 m, the technical race 900 m with buoy turns, and the long distance 11.5 km for every category.
When are the open finals?
The sprint finals are on Friday 16 October (women 16:00, men 16:10 local time), the technical finals on Saturday 17 October (women 17:45, men 17:55), and the long distance on Sunday 18 October (men 13:30, women 13:35).
Can Mariecarmen Rivera win all three titles again?
She did it in Abu Dhabi and is entered in all three disciplines. The sprint could prove her toughest challenge. Cecilia Pampinella won the European and World Cup sprints in September in 26.874 and 26.960 seconds respectively, and Seychelle Webster has won a sprint medal in each of the last three editions.
Is Cecilia Pampinella the favourite in the women's sprint?
She won both September sprints in Agios Nikolaos and will now race in front of a home crowd. Her advantage is narrow, though: Hanna Kamińska finished just 0.060 seconds behind her in the World Cup final.
Will there be a new men's sprint world champion?
All four previous champions are entered: Connor Baxter, Noïc Garioud, Andrii Kraitor and Sergio Cantoral. Of those four, only Cantoral is seeded. Manuel Hoyuela, seeded first, won world silver in 2024 but has yet to claim the title.
How many Polish athletes are competing?
Thirty-eight Polish athletes are entered in the championship categories, with another nine in the under-12 and under-15 children's sprint races. Miłosz Sytnik is the top seed in both the junior sprint and technical race, while Mikołaj Majdan is seeded ninth in the open technical event.
Which countries have the biggest teams?
Italy has 108 athletes, Spain 103 and Greece 60, followed by Hungary, Germany, France and Poland.
Rivera begins her title defence in Wednesday's sprint heats. By Friday afternoon, we will know whether she has retained that crown, with home favourite Pampinella looking like her strongest challenger. Whether Rivera leaves the ICF World Championships with a second consecutive clean sweep will be decided in Sunday's long-distance race. You can find Mariecarmen Rivera's profile and all the start lists on PaddleStats.