The clouds parted to offer a brief hope of sunshine at the start of the race in Reading, only for the return of Britain’s persistently white skies to dash the racers’ hopes a few minutes later. Thameside 2 featured cool 6°C temperatures made cooler by sustained 15 mph headwinds that gusted up to 25 mph. With relatively normal (low for the winter) river levels and flow, it would not be a record-breaking weekend*. But on the bright side, the race proceeded as usual without fear of cancellation. That’s a bigger deal than it sounds: Thameside 2 was cancelled the last two years due to unsafe river levels, and in 2020-2021 during COVID. In the past five years, 2022 was the only year it ran as usual. Thameside 1 has faced similar challenges.

Looking at the results by class and overall, the racing was tight, in a continuation of several close finishes from the Watersides and Thamesides this year…

Mixed K2

In their second race together, Joe Petersen / Brynde Kreft paddled to an easy win in the mixed K2 class, and a hard-earned 4th fastest K2 overall. They finished one second ahead of the second place men’s K2 of Jordan Martyn / Edward Saunders from Wey Canoe Club, and behind three men’s and boys crews who continued their dominant streak this season: the leading men’s crew Tom Simmons / Andrew Birkett, the record breaking junior boys crew of Will Short / Alex Worgan, and last year’s U16 national marathon K2 champs Freddie Heard / Olivier Mazur. Although Joe and Brynde were happy to get a clean run after their rudder incident at Waterside B, they ran into a different boat issue when they got swamped in the whitecaps at Henley straight.

Top 10 K2s Overall: Fastest Times

Tom Simmons / Andrew Birkett	Senior Men	1:53:24
Will Short / Alex Worgan	Junior Boys	1:53:38
Freddie Heard / Olivier Mazur	Junior Boys	1:58:01
Joe Petersen / Brynde Kreft	Mixed	2:00:38
Tim Escott / Luke Escott	Senior Men	2:05:24
Anoushka Freeman / Maia Wallace-Loizou	Senior Women	2:07:06
Tristram Turner / Ross Mcmullen	Senior Men	2:08:45
Tom Hayland / Owen Attwood	Junior Boys	2:10:01
Maximus Prins-Mills / Aidan Teeuwen	Junior Boys	2:10:31
Doogal Barnett / Ocean O’Keeffe	Junior Boys	2:11:33

Women’s & Girls’ K2

Anoushka Freeman raced in the women’s K2 category with her Richmond teammate Maia Wallace-Loizou, finishing in 2:07:06. It looked like an easy win, but Noushie is dealing with a persistent back injury so it wasn’t quite as easy as it looked. Junior girls Frankie Scrivener (FOX) / Annabel Hutchinson (RDG) finished just a few minutes behind Noushie and Maia in an impressive 2:12:47, missing out on the Top 10 fastest K2s overall by only about a minute.

Fast K2s at the first portage, just after the start

Video Credit to Joe via Facebook

Men’s K2

Tom Simmons and Andy Birkett showed their prowess once again, building on their win at Waterside B. They’re easily the fastest men’s K2 in the DW lead-up this season (at least as far as the early race results show), and told Paddle Daily that swapping seats (Tom in front, Andy in back) has already improved their boat chemistry. Last year, Tom and Andy held first position in the Waterside Series and paddled the fastest splits for the first few checkpoints at DW until they ended up retiring not far off the halfway point. This year, they’re putting in significantly more miles together and looking for redemption at DW 2025.

Boys’ K2

Junior boys Will Short / Alex Worgan gave Tom and Andy a run for their money again. At Waterside B, they started and finished separately, with final times only 32 seconds apart. It was a record for the junior boys. At Thameside 2, they started together in the K2 mass start, and Will and Alex managed to narrow the gap to just 14 seconds. Will and Alex are having a phenomenal season. Unfortunately they’ll be missing out on the opportunity to go after more records at Watersides C and D since they’re prioritising the assessment races, but there’s surely plenty of exciting racing in their future.

K1

Harry Freeland, newly in the senior category this year, sped to another win after his impressive wins at Waterside A and Thameside 1. Harry’s Waterside A time of 1:38:38 wasn’t quite fast enough to beat Keith Moule’s 2016 record (1:37:20) but it did earn Harry the second fastest K1 time ever for Waterside A. At Thameside 1, Harry was the quickest boat overall in 1:25:13, with Joe Petersen in K1 just one second behind him. For Thameside 2, he took the fourth fastest time overall behind the three men’s and boys’ K2s: 1:59:50.

At Thameside 1, the racing was so tight that the top four women’s K1s all finished within five minutes of each other: Brynde (1:36:47), Noushie (1:37:51), Katie Brookes (1:40:30), and Freya Peters (1:41:43). The results echoed tight racing between Brynde and Katie at the Royal Paddling Challenge last October, where Katie out-raced Brynde to win the £750 first place prize. Those race highlights are well worth a watch or re-watch. At Thameside 1, it was Brynde who out-raced Katie. But for Thameside 2, with several top names missing or racing K2, it was an easy win for Katie. She won the women’s K1 category handily in 2:17:24.

Fast K1s at the first portage, just after the start

Video Credit to Joe via Facebook

View from the Water

I had the distinct pleasure of reporting this race from the water. Although it meant missing the top K2 crews (they disappeared into the distance ahead of me within a few seconds), it gave me a firsthand view of Harry Freeland’s smooth technique in the K1 as he passed us effortlessly mid-race. It was easy to see how that smooth glide and boat connection keeps taking him to more wins.

For all but about five minutes of the race, the headwind was an absolute killer. I recently learned about the Dutch Headwind Cycling Championships, and that physics says that to maintain the same speed in a headwind, you have to increase your power output by a larger factor than the increase in wind speed. Or something like that – basically, physics has an explanation for why paddling into a sustained 15mph headwind for two hours feels as miserable as it does.

Whether physics can explain the misery of the Henley straight though… Something about the wind against tide there on Sunday created huge whitecaps, reminiscent of a bad day out on the sea, big enough to break over our cockpit and slap me in the face repeatedly. It’s no surprise that Joe and Brynde swamped here. I felt particularly grateful to have a spray deck and pogies. My K2 partner, James Prowse, has paddled this stretch probably more than twenty times (if not double that), and on Sunday observed from the stern as I sputtered through another cold shock to the face: “I never knew why people complain so much about the Henley straight. Until today.”

Looking ahead to Easter Weekend

After the thrill of the UK’s top two mixed K2 crews this season racing head to head for the first time at Waterside B came to an abrupt end when Joe / Brynde lost their rudder halfway through the race, fans are still waiting for a true head-to-head matchup. At Thameside 1, Brynde out-paddled Noushie in K1 by 64 seconds (1:36:47 vs. 1:37:51) and Joe beat Tom Sharpe by two and a half minutes (1:25:14 vs. 1:27:56), so their K2 should have a margin of speed, but that margin is incredibly tight. We didn’t get the K2s facing off directly at Thameside 2, but at least we got a few more data points.

There are four top contenders to win this year’s Devizes to Westminster race: Tom Sharpe / Anoushka Freeman, Brynde Kreft / Joe Petersen, Tom Simmons / Andrew Birkett, and Dan Palmer / David Horkan. Tom and Noushie could arguably be the favourites coming after their win last year, but Brynde / Joe will certainly be challenging them from the mixed side and Tom / Andy from the men’s side. Tom / Andy are quicker on the water; they’re making adjustments to their training and boat set-up to improve their chemistry; and they’re out for redemption after retiring from DW 2024 early. So by the data, all Tom / Andy have to do is finish all 125 miles at a fairly comfortable pace, and they should take the win. But as we saw last year (and as any ultra marathon paddler knows), the data is never a guarantee.

Looking at the Waterside Series data from 2024, and each top crew’s time past the first few checkpoints during DW itself, Tom / Andy absolutely have the boat speed. But it was Tom / Noushie whose boat chemistry, fast flow experience, and persistent endurance kicked in after Newbury and ultimately took them to first place.

2024 data analysis of Tom / Noushie’s win

Dan Palmer / David Horkan could be an outside pick for the podium or even the win – they’re both fast, experienced distance paddlers who are training hard. But with the distance between their home bases in Cornwall and Ireland, not being able to train in the boat together could be too large of a hurdle to overcome. Or not… It’s far too early to count this crew out of the running.

Waterside C Preview

Start lists aren’t posted yet, but we should get to see Tom / Anoushka face off against Joe / Brynde head to head. Finally! Tom Simmons / Andy Birkett won’t be racing together as Andy’s out of town, and some of the other top folks including Will Short / Alex Worgan will be prioritising assessment racing instead of Watersides, but if the weather forecast holds (never a guarantee here in sunny England) then we should have decent conditions for tight racing. Tune in via Paddle Daily’s Instagram Stories (or Facebook Stories) to follow the action in real time.

*Technically it was a record-breaking weekend, or more accurately “record setting”, since the finish line moved upriver from Longridge Activity Centre to Bisham Abbey Sailing School