While the DW winner is usually a men’s K2, mixed gender crews in recent years have often finished in the top five or even higher. Last year, Dan Palmer and Kat Burbeck finished in 3rd place overall and just ten minutes behind the second place men’s crew. The last mixed crew to win DW was Alex Lane and Dan Seaford in 2019 and prior to that, Lizzie Broughton and Keith Moule in 2015 who finished in a blistering 16:40:31.

Up to that point, DW winners were all (to the best available knowledge) men’s crews. Women weren’t allowed to race for a long time, and the Ladies and Mixed categories weren’t created until 1975. That said, a little gem of a blurb from DW history labelled “1973 Note on Ladies from the results” tells us before the mixed and ladies classes were introduced, there were “several successful but unofficial D/W runs made by girls. By cutting their hair fairly short, wearing life jackets, allowing their male partners to do all the talking and taking advantage, as was possible at that time, of starting during the night, it was not all that difficult… Our records of these unofficial female crews are incomplete but, one such crew was Ann Mary Evans (later Ann Mary Booth) and Jonathon Hutt who in 1973 covered the course in 49hrs 57mins.” Apparently, that Ann Mary Evans was entered as “Amery McIntosh-Evans”. She and Jonathon were aged 18 at the time.

Although mixed crews have performed well in recent years, it’s not exactly commonplace to see them win – in the words of Guy Dresser in 2019:

“Alex Lane and Dan Seaford from Reading Canoe Club shocked canoe marathon pundits with a surprise victory in the annual 125-mile Devizes to Westminster Canoe Race, held in blistering temperatures over the Easter weekend. The pair became only the second ever mixed boat to win the race outright in the event’s 71-year history, seeing off challenges from numerous all-male crews.”

https://paddlerezine.com/mixed-crew-wins-dw/

So do Anoushka Freeman and Tom Sharpe really have a shot at winning in 2024?

Tom isn’t exactly a DW vet, but he does have two completions under his belt including in K1 and most notably broke the 44-year-old race record last year with partner Keith Moule. The fast flow conditions of last year were needed to break the record, but Tom and Keith still had to execute a near-perfect race to nab the record. Keith’s steps for “How To Break A Legendary Record” started with finding the right K2 buddy and getting fit – this year, it looks like Tom is following the same steps with Anoushka, just with a different goal.

“This year it’s all about the mixed K2. We’ve trained together, we’ve paddled together, we want to see what we can do.” Tom has previously raced for GB at marathon world championships, including with Keith Moule, but his focus has since shifted to the ‘ultras’: “I did a few races internationally. But to be honest, in hindsight, maybe I should have started on [DW] a bit earlier… I think I have a bit more aptitude for the super long ones.”

Anoushka has also raced internationally for GB in both marathon and sprint world champs, but agrees with Tom that DW is “a completely different kettle of fish”. She just completed her first nonstop DW last year. After racing two Watersides in K1 and two in K2, Noushie ended up confirming her DW partner (Sam Lee-Gil) only about 40 hours before the race start. Anoushka and Sam finished DW in a respectable 18:21:40 but were more focused on finishing than finishing fast. This year, Anoushka knows what to expect from the race so she and Tom can worry more about speed: “It’s a bit of a different approach this year… Last year was about getting down the course and having as much fun as we could. This year, we’ll try to go a bit faster and hopefully still have a bit of fun.”

With her background in international sprint racing, Noushie is ready to bring some serious speed: “I think having done a couple of years of high intensity training laid some nice foundations. Tom and I revisited some one minute efforts last week. I think we’re ready for a sprint start and sprint finish on DW…”

How are they training? Doing a lot of long paddles, practicing drinking and eating, and getting ready for muddy feet!