Words: Nicky Cresser
The weekend of 5/6 April saw the start of the selection process for the British Wild Water Racing teams for the 2025 season.
The weekend represented the first opportunity to make the team that will race at the Junior and Under 23 World Championships in Solkan, Slovenia in July.
There is a second round of selections for this championship, but this will be to offer those unsuccessful in their priority event, the chance to train their less favoured class and fill any unfilled spots in the less competitive classes.
After the successful year experienced by the team in 2024 and all of the hard work over the winter, selections were going to be exciting as athletes pushed their limits to make the team.
Saturday saw the athletes taking to Halton Rapids for the sprint event.
With low water, the course was challenging and many of the top guys spent the morning taking time to learn lines, find the deepest water and keep their boats running.
The hard work paid off for Leon Tomlinson and Kerry Christie who took the win in kayak in the U23 classes. They left no stone unturned whilst searching for the fastest lines. There was much excitement in these categories as the racing is so tight with many athletes capable of making team and many with previous international successes.
After first runs, a few of the top athletes left themselves with work to do, Katie Pocklington and Lucy Guest were off the pace on first runs and Huw Singleton had a disaster, sitting in 10th place.
With lessons learned, second runs were on the whole a lot quicker. Katie and Huw both put down much improved runs putting themselves second place in their respective category, with Molly Sandercock and Emma Christie making up the top four in the women’s and Eddie Mackintosh and Toby Peyton-Jones in the men’s.
A number of the top athletes left themselves with work to do on the classic, which left the evening for recceing the classic course and seeing where seconds can be shaved.
In the junior categories, the Stevely brothers asserted their dominance on the field finishing first and second with Will taking the victory over Sam, with youngsters Malachi Grant and Finlay Lovell making up the top four.
In the women’s juniors, Ciara Maloney took the win ahead of clubmate Elsie Landsborough followed by Karly Leeson and Adriana Czarnecka.
The canoe categories have seen somewhat of a resurgence of late and the medals of 2024 have lead to a renewed interest. Of particular note was there being five women’s C2s racing along with nine C1W.
The canoes played out true to form with the experienced crews taking the victories.
A couple of athletes new to WWR stood out, with Sophie Cameron taking the overall win in C1W, having only started WWR this winter and Freya Pryce, making significant improvement this winter to put in solid performances to take second place in the under 23s.
Sunday’s racing started with a lot of tension in the air with it all to play for.
The women’s kayak was the most anticipated, and there were some incredible results. In the Under 23s, Lucy Guest did what she needed to, taking the victory over the reigning world champion, Kerry Christie. with Emma Christie taking third place and Freya Pryce in fourth.
The juniors were pushing hard too with Ciara Maloney challenging the under 23s in sixth place overall, but taking the win in the juniors, with the remaining positions mirroring Saturday.
In the K1M, Leon Tomlinson asserted himself yet again, being undefeated this year in the classic, but this time could only take the victory by just over four seconds ahead of Eddie Mackintosh.
Lochie Lovell turned a few heads finishing in third, pushing Huw Singleton down into fourth and gaining enough points to move into the top four.
In the juniors, the Stevely brothers swapped places with Sam leading the charge, with Will having to settle for second and Malachi Grant taking a solid third place. Fourth was taken by newcomer Rory Smith leaving him joint on points in fourth place with Finley Lovell.
In the canoe categories, there were some outstanding results.
The gap is narrowing between last year’s senior world Champions, Kerry and Emma Christie and their training partners, Ciara Maloney and Elsie Landsborough who finished in second with a deficit of less than 20 seconds.
These girls are a very exciting prospect for the coming season. Sophie Cameron and Emily MacLean finished second in the juniors with Karly Leeson and Adriana Czarnecka finished in third.
In the men’s C2, Toby Peyton Jones and Eddie Mackintosh took another win to finish ahead of Lochie Lovell and Harry Sewell-Catchpole.
In C1, the standout result was Elsie Landsborough finishing in second overall very close to U23 winner, Kerry Christie.
The under 23s saw Emma Christie finish in second and Freya Pryce take third with the junior top four completed by Ciara Maloney, Sophie Cameron and Emily MacLean.
In the men’s category, the series was tight with Regan Toop and Callum McDonald each taking a win finishing tied on points. Finley Lovell took the overall win in the junior category.
The results, competency assessments and performance analysis will be provided to the selectors who will meet during the week commencing 28 April and the team will be selected.
Any unfilled slots will then be contested at the second round race at Matlock on 25 May.
Full results are available here:
https://www.wildwater.org.uk/results/#10-218-2025-results
For more information visit www.wildwater.org.uk