On Saturday, hundreds of thousands of spectators in Northern Spain will gather up and down the banks of the Riba de Sella to watch one of the world’s oldest canoe races.

The Sella Descent, or Descenso Internacional del Sella, is known for being one of the most fun marathons for both racers and spectators thanks to the local festival atmosphere, but it also attracts some of the best talent from Spain, the rest of Europe, and even paddlers from as far away as South Africa, New Zealand, and Argentina.

This year’s starting line-up is exceptionally strong.

Bouzan / Llera return to defend their title

2025 winners Walter Bouzan and Alberto Llera are back to defend their title, and after winning Thursday’s time trial, it looks like they’re well positioned to pull it off. Bouzan and Llera proved to be the perfect marriage of experience and youth in last year’s race. Bouzan, 48, grew up on the Ribadesella, and a win this year would be his 13th Sella win, and 10th in K2. Meanwhile, Llera is one of the up-and-coming paddlers on Spain’s international sprint squad. At just 23 years old, he raced in Spain’s second senior men’s K4 500m at the Montreal Sprint World Cup.

Hungarian challengers are hungry for gold

The challengers will be this year’s European Marathon Champions, Adrian Boros and Tamas Erdelyi from Hungary. They finished second to Bouzan / Llera last year in a thrilling sprint finish after a front pack of four boats stayed together right to the finish line. Boros / Erdelyi are training hard for their main event of the year, Marathon World Championships in Argentina in October, but managed to sneak a few days away from their national team obligations to try again to win the Sella.

Spanish teams could fill out the podium

Last year’s third place team of Javier Lopez and Pedro Vazquez are returning again as podium favourites. They got the better of their compatriots Miguel Llorens / Alberto Plaza in last year’s sprint finish. While Plaza takes on the K1 this year, Llorens has gone international for his partner choice of Valdemar Jorgensen from Denmark. Llorens will bring the race experience and course knowledge, so this crew could also have a chance at the podium.

He finished in 5th place last year, but 2026 might be a podium year for Adrian Martin. He looks as strong as ever coming off his silver medal in K2 (with Joaquin Iglesias) and bronze medal in K1 short course at the European Championships. Teamed up with David Rodriguez Dorado for Sella again, they finished 3rd in the time trial. Look for them in the front pack.

World champions are on the start line

Some of the biggest names in international marathon racing may be taking advantage of the unusually late dates for Marathon Worlds to take a run at the Sella, including reigning multiple Marathon World Champion Mads Pedersen. Pedersen skipped the Sella last year, but he has plenty of race experience from previous years. He’s teaming up with his K2 partner Philip Knudsen, who’s freshly entered the Senior category this year after taking numerous world titles in the Under 23 category. Pedersen / Knudsen took a silver medal at last year’s Marathon World Championships just ahead of the Hungarians Boros / Erdelyi. While the Danes have a strong track record on the international circuit, this will be their first Sella Descent together.

Reigning K2 Marathon World Champion and one of the most decorated marathon paddlers of all time, Jose Ramalho will also be competing at this year’s Sella. He’s paired with Portuguese partner Alfredo Faria, with whom he just won a bronze medal at Europeans. While Ramalho may be better known for the titles he’s won with Olympic legend Fernando Pimenta, he’s consistently one of the most strategic drivers on the water. His result with Faria at Europeans proved that their partnership and performance this year is world class.

An Olympic gold medalist turns to the Sella

Making his Sella debut this year is Jacob Schopf, the multiple Olympic medallist from Germany (K2 gold in Paris, K4 gold in Paris, K2 silver in Tokyo). Schopf is teaming up with fellow German Claas Gebhardt, who really knows how to pick his Sella partners: Gebhardt finished 8th at the Sella 3 years ago with another German Olympic medallist, Max Hoff. Schopf, like Pedersen, is racing internationally in sprint this year and has squeezed the Sella into the narrow window between Sprint World Cup #3 in Montreal a few weeks ago and the Sprint World Championships in Poznan at the end fo the month.

Outside chances at the podium for more international paddling royalty

Winning the competition for furthest travelled: Juan Caceres and Pedro Agustin Ratto from Argentina, or Uli Hart and Clint Cook from South Africa. Also from Argentina, Ivan Balboa has teamed up with Spaniard Julio Martinez. Caceres / Ratto earned the 5th fastest time at the time trial, so they’ll be in an ideal starting position to make the front group off the start, and they’re well set up to make the most of it.

An ambitious young crew from Hungary is comprised of Csanad Sellyei and Martin Kiss. Sellyei is fresh off a stunning performance at the European Marathon Championships where he dropped the entire Under 23 field mid-way through the marathon, set the quickest portage time of the weekend, and won by nearly a full minute. Despite his young age, Sellyei snagged a bronze medal in the senior men’s K1 marathon at last year’s Worlds behind Mads Pedersen and Andy Birkett.

The women’s race opens up without The Two Tanias

Tania Fernandez and Tania Alvarez’s win at last year’s Sella Descent was the preface to their world title just a few weeks later, which came in a hard-fought battle against both Hungarian crews of Vanda Kiszli / Zsofia Szerafin and Panna Sinko / Panna Csepe.

Without Tania / Tania back to defend their title, last year’s second place finishers are the favourites: Amaia Osaba and Llara Tuset. Osaba is a podium regular at the Sella, with multiple wins in previous years including 2022, 2019, 2018, and 2017.

But they could be challenged by a new combination for the Sella: Alba Esteban / Maria Martinez. Esteban’s is fresh off a gold medal at Marathon Europeans with Miriam Vega, where they got the better of The Two Panna’s only on the final portage.

Panna Sinko and Panna Csepe are podium favourites in any marathon they take on, and after finishing 4th at last year’s Sella, they’re ready to take a medal this time. When Esteban / Vega made their move on that final portage at Europeans, Sinko was still recovering from a shoulder injury. If she’s back in top form for the Sella, they should be able to challenge the Spanish teams.

With an outside chance — all the way from Argentina, Aitana Gastaldo is racing with Spaniard Natalia Sanchez. In January, Gastaldo won the women’s race at Argentina’s answer to the Sella, the multi-day Rio Negro. Katie Brookes and Sam Martyn from the UK, as well as Pernille Hostrup and Karoline Nielsen from Denmark could also be in the mix.

Unlike the top senior men’s racers, the top senior women are not invited to time trial for their starting positions. Like the vast majority of other Sella racers, they’re stuck with whichever position they’re assigned according to category. Tania / Tania passed 240 boats to finish 61st overall when they won last year. It adds a whole other dimension to the race where getting lucky and staying out of trouble becomes just as important as paddling fast.

River levels so low the Sella is getting bulldozed

It’s been a very dry, hot summer in much of Europe, and while Asturias has fortunately not suffered the worst consequences of the fires seen in other parts of Spain, the dry spell could still affect the race. The Ribadesella is already shallow for the race each August, but it’s low enough this year that diggers appeared to deepen the channels.

According to one Facebook group, some locals are not happy about the river construction and say there’s a lack of transparency in who bulldozed the river and who approved it.

A low river is to be expected though, and with a water release planned for Saturday, racers will hope for a bit more depth but be ready to hop out and portage over the rocks if needed.

Tune in to the Spanish TV live stream to watch the race start from 12 noon local time on Saturday, 8th August 2026.