Paddlecast is back with a preview of this weekend’s Paddle Worldwide (ICF) Canoe Ocean Racing World Championships! The singles (SS1) and doubles (SS2) racing will take place between Friday the 9th and Sunday the 11th in Villajoyosa, Spain — the usual site of Eurochallenge.

With course options of 20-22 km on the Mediterranean Sea, this year’s world champs will look pretty different from Durban. It’s too early to predict exactly how big the bumps will be, but smaller conditions could favour certain racers over others and potentially change up the podiums from last year.

Rosie Edwards 🇬🇧 joins Paddlecast to recap her recent win at European Championships where she earned her first title of overall European Champion while still Under 23. She’s heading into Worlds now with a goal of defending her Under 23 World title from last year. In Durban, she finished in 3rd place overall behind Kira Bester 🇿🇦 and Danielle Richards 🇳🇿.

Kira is going for her third world title in a row this weekend, which would be an incredible achievement but almost expected at this point given just how consistently she finds her way to the top at the biggest races of the year. Her biggest competition will be Jemma Smith 🇦🇺, two-time World Champion who’s returning to the Worlds after missing the last two years. At WA Race Week last year, Jemma got the better of Kira at one of the Sunset Series races, but Kira took the win at The Doctor. It could be tight!

In the men’s race, Cory Hill 🇦🇺 will be attempting to extend his own record of 4 world titles. His win in Durban was dominant, but many of his best performances tend to be in bigger conditions: The Doctor, Molokai, Durban… If he does manage to take a 5th title, it won’t come easy.

At the recent Paddle Europe European Championships for Canoe Ocean Racing, conditions were so flat that it looked like a marathon race. The top four men arrived at the beach together, and Bernardo Pereira 🇵🇹 outsprinted his competitors for the win. Bernardo is still Under 23, but finished in 3rd place overall last year behind Cory and Pierre Vilella 🇫🇷. If the recent results from Euros are anything to go by, the front of the men’s race might well end in a sprint finish.

And that’s before getting into the long list of top contenders from South Africa, where practically every name on the team could be considered as a top 10 (or podium) contender. Keep your eye on paddling legend Hank McGregor 🇿🇦, who won his 15th Berg River Marathon in July, and the young Uli Hart 🇿🇦 who pulled off a surprising upset at the South African Marathon Nationals to win ahead of Olympian Hamish Lovemore.

The top contenders list got even longer after recording when the final entry list revealed that Pat Dolan is flying out from Hawaii: Pat beat Cory in 2025 to take the new Molokai record in a race for the ages. Like Cory, he’s better known for thriving in big conditions, but he should still be right up there near the front.