Major wild water racing event comes to Dee this weekend

* Photo: Pete Atkinson

According to an article by Nicky Cresser in the online magazine Paddle UK, this coming weekend sees the final National races of the 2024 British ranking series on the River Dee in Wales.

Nicky writes: "Saturday's Sprint race in Llangollen, Wales on the Serpent's tail is also doubling up as the European Canoe Association (ECA) Sprint Cup Final.

This is the second ECA cup event to the hosted by GBR in 2024 with more international wild water racing coming to the UK.

The racing is set to be tight in both series' and as we reach the culmination of British WWR's most successful season ever, we have the chance of further success in many categories.

In men's K1, the British ranking series has been hotly contested with four different winners to date.

Nicky Cresser, Nick Boreham and Leon Tomlinson are in the running for the championship having taken a win each with two races to go.

Alex Sheppy is the firm favourite in this category having won three races already and a strong position to win on the Dee Sprint.

The ECA cup standings are also pretty tight with British Athletes Alex Sheppy and Freddie Brown still in the running for the overall series win and will be joined on the start line by some big international names.

Ivo Lamers (NED) is currently ranked third, just five points behind Alex, Jan Sindelar (CZE) has medalled at Worlds and Europeans multiple times in the last couple of years and Etienne Wich is racing straight off the back of a bronze medal at senior French championships.

The women's K1 has been dominated this season by Kerry Christie who has won all but one of the National races that was snatched by former world champion, Hannah Brown.

Off the back of the success of coaching her athletes at the Paralympic Games, Hannah will be looking to push Kerry to the line and two wins will see her taking the series.

Again, the ECA cup ranking will have British interest too, with Kerry Christie and Molly Sandercock currently in top positions, and being joined on the start line by Dutch, Czech and German athletes, it's likely to go down to the wire.

The canoe categories have seen significant growth in the UK, both in participation and international success.

The Christie sisters have the Women's C2 sewn up having been undefeated this year, but juniors Elsie Landsborough and Ciara Maloney will be keen to get their first win.

The women's C1 is lead by Molly Sandercock, but Emily Mclean and Chloe Bracewell are leading the chase and are still capable of taking the win.

Andrew Crowhurst is pushing C1 and C2 (alongside his partner Phil Dean) forward, currently sitting on maximum points in both categories with only Nicky Cresser in C1 and Robert Jefferies and Jacob Holmes in C2 able to challenge for the top spot.

In the ECA Cup standings Molly, Chloe and Kerry are all in the battle for the win in women's C1, but this will be close with Czech and Slovak team members Alexandra Plachtova and Viktoria Scholzova putting their names in the mix on the Dee.

Kerry and Emma will be hoping to hold onto the top spot in the Women's C2 with Ciara and Elsie looking to move up the table. In the Men's categories, the British contingent will be looking to put in good performances to boost their rankings."

* For more information: www.wildwater.org.uk