Great Britain made a solid start in challenging conditions as the 2025 ICF Canoe-Kayak Ocean Racing World Championships began in South Africa.
The championships opened with the Surf-ski double races in Durban, with the British squad fielding five teams on day one.
Paddlers faced the stiff challenge of a big surf and shore break to navigate through at both the start and the finish of the 30km course from Durban to Amanzimtoti.
GB sent out two boats in the under 23 mixed category, with Terry Miller and Rosie Edwards racing along with teammates Toby Peyton-Jones and Olivia Geddes.
Terry, a junior individual bronze at last year’s world championships in Madeira, and former European bronze medallist Rosie formed a strong partnership and clocked the Brits’ best time of the day.
They posted 2hr 05min 22sec for sixth spot in a 12-boat field, one place higher than they managed 12 months ago.
Toby and Olivia finished just two places back in eighth after recording 2:09.39, while gold went to South African duo Holly Smith and Heath Clarke.
Junior paddlers Freddie Broxis and Poppy Bellamy went in the under 18 mixed class and paddled strongly to register a top-half finish in seventh place with a time of 2:20.39.
South African Ryley Smith struck gold in the race for the second year running, this time with Ellen Strydom, with just 53 seconds separating the top three.
Ryan Lark and Melissa Johnson finished in 2:06.24 for a strong seventh place in a senior mixed class won by Matthew Penn and Saskia Hockley as the host nation dominated day one.
And there was a top-three finish for Matt Rowlands and Andrew Birkett in the 70-79 men’s masters race.
The 19-strong British squad now moves on to the main business of the weekend on Sunday as paddlers go solo to decide the individual world titles.