Words: Nick Boreham
Photos: David Know
Last weekend, Britain’s best Wildwater racers congregated in the Perthshire Highlands to battle for their place on 2025’s international senior team.
The weekend was decided between the sprint race on Saturday and the long distance ‘classic’ race on Sunday. Both races would be used to select for the European Championships to be held in Mezzana and the Banja Luka World Cup events.
The races would also decide the Scottish Champions and the British Classic Champion of 2025.
The competitors arrived in the picturesque Tay valley to find the river unseasonably low. The racing line was now a tight weave through the exposed rocks that make up the main Rapid at Grandtully.
The tight lines led to some equally tight racing with less than 0.6 seconds separating the top three men’s K1.
Huw Singleton of NKC took first with Alex Sheppy (Devises) and Freddie Brown (WYCC) hot on his heals. Jacob Holmes of Breadalbain came in 5th overall to secure the Men’s Scottish Sprint Championship on his home river.
In the women’s K1 sprint, Kerry Christie (Breakout) secured 1st,
1.16 seconds ahead of Freya Pryce (Edinburgh Schools KC) who claimed the Women’s Sprint Championships. Molly Sandercock from Breakout claimed 3rd place.
Kerry was able to repeat this victory on Sunday’s classic race but this time it was her sister, Emma Christie, hunting down the reigning U23 world champion who secured 2nd. Freya Pryce rounded out the top 3 adding the Women’s Scottish Classic Championships to her resume.
The Christie Sisters attribute at least some of their success to their friendly siblings rivalry but they were able to set this aside to dominate in the C2. They convincingly took both Sprint and Classic wins reminding everyone why they are the World Champions in this discipline.
The men’s C2 also saw some competitive racing after last year’s international success. New crews were eager to gain a selection to capitalise on the momentum from the 2024 World Championships, but it was the returning pair of Phil Dean and Andrew Crowhurst who claimed gold in both Sprint and Classic races. Andrew also managed to replicate this feat in MC1.
With racing complete, the results will now be analysed by the Wildwater Selection committee in accordance with the Wildwater Selection Policy to determine the team for the Senior European Championships and the first 3 World Cups. An announcement on this will be made in the following weeks once the team has been finalised.
Selections for the Senior Sprint World Championships and the final World Cups will be held at HPP in Nottingham on the 14th-15th of July.