Words by Nick Boreham
The success continued for the Brits on the second race of the 2025 Wildwater world cup series. This race would be a sprint, on a 350m long section of river though the centre of Banja Luka.
In the WK1 Kerry Christie made a strong start, heading strait to the finals after finishing joint 3rd in the first heat. In the finals she managed to improve her time by 0.2 seconds, but was unfortunately ended up in 4th place just another 0.2 seconds off the podium. Despite this disappointment this was still Kerry’s best sprint performance yet at the senior level.
“The sprint events have always been always a weakness of mine, but I’ve been working hard over the winter to try and remedy it. I did want a spot on that podium but I’m proud of the improvements I’ve made,” said “Kerry Christie
The rest of the British women’s K1s unfortunately missed out on the final, but all put in strong performances. Emma Christie finished in 13th narrowly missing the final, while Vicky Murray and Freya Pryce had a tight battle for 23rd and 24th place finishing with times of 56.81 and 56.90 seconds respectively. Ada Czarnecka competing in her first senior sprint event finished in a respectable 32nd place.
Hopes were high for the MK1 team after their success in the the Veles world cup last year. However unfortunately no one was able to make the final. Alex Sheppy and Nick Boreham came the closes finishing a hairs width apart with times of 47.70 and 47.72. The pair came in 26th and 27th respectively missing out on the final by just over a second. The rest of the team was not far behind with Freddie finishing 29th in 47.89, with Leon Tomlinson in 30th at 48.04, Jacob Holmes in 34th at 48.36 and Eddie Mackintosh in 36th with 48.47.
After the race Nick Boreham said: “I think we were all a little bit disappointed to not make a final but as a classic specialist I’m extremely happy with my time. As I entered the rapid I could hear the cheering from the rest of the team and it definitely gave me that extra oomph to get across the line.”
In the C1 categories Andrew Crowhurst came 13th in the men’s and Freya Pryce finished 15th in the women’s.
However it was in the C2 that the Brits once again found their success. The pair of Phil Dean and Andrew Crowhurst made the finals from their 2nd heat, eventually finishing in 10th place overall. However, once again it would be the Christie Sisters (Emma and Kerry) who collected the silverware for the team, claiming another 2nd place in the 2025 world cup.
Today will see the final day of racing in Banja Luka, with the third world cup race. This will be a mass start race, which is guaranteed to be eventful.