ISA World SUP and Paddleboard Championship Shifts Focus to Weekend of Technical and Relay Races to Award First Team Title in Europe

Ver Noticia en Español

ATTENTION MEDIA:
For daily photos, video highlights, and video news releases, click here.

To see full event results, team ranking, and Technical Race Final lineups, click here.

After a historic day of SUP Surfing that resulted in Australia’s Shakira Westdorp and Brazil’s Luiz Diniz claiming the Women’s and Men’s individual Gold Medals, the 2017 ISA World SUP and Paddleboard Championship will not run on Friday and will shift its focus towards a weekend of Technical and Relay Races that will determine who will be crowned Team World Champion.

Denmark’s Casper Steinfath leads the pack during the SUP Technical Race Semifinals. Photo: ISA / Ben Reed
Denmark’s Casper Steinfath leads the pack during the SUP Technical Race Semifinals. Photo: ISA / Ben Reed

In the event’s sixth year, the team that claims the coveted Club Waikiki-Peru World Team Champion Trophy will go down in history as the first to earn the honor in Europe.

Team France, the 2016 Silver Medalist, currently holds the Gold Medal position and will have a great chance to build upon their lead with all of their SUP and Paddleboard Technical racers having qualified for the Finals.

The four-time Team Gold Medalist Australia is sitting in the Silver Medal position, intent on defending their Team Title. The Australians will rely on their star paddleboarders who took Distance Race Gold in Copenhagen, Lachie Lansdown and Jordan Mercer, to repeat the feat in the Technical Race to keep their hopes of the Team Gold alive.

The SUP and Paddleboard Technical Races are set to kick off at 12:00pm CEST in the town of Vorupør located on Denmark’s northwest coast. The top SUP and Paddleboarders in the world are set to compete and go for Gold, such as Denmark’s local standout, Casper Steinfath, Hungary’s brother duo, Daniel and Bruno Hasulyo, New Zealand’s strong Women SUP racers, Annabel Anderson and Penelope Strickland, Hawaii’s Connor Baxter and Mo Freitas, and the strong French SUP contingent of Olivia Piana, Amandine Chazot, Arthur Arutkin, and Titouan Puyo.

Kicking off on September 1 in Copenhagen, the 2017 edition of the ISA World SUP and Paddleboards Championship has made history as the largest SUP World Championship to date. The 286 athletes from 42 countries is more than a 100% increase in participation from the 2016 edition in Fiji and the thirteen first-time competing nations are representative of the ISA’s push to reach new markets and grow the sport of SUP globally.

After two days of Distance Racing and SUP Sprints in Copenhagen, the contest moved to the renowned watersport destination of Vorupør in the country’s northwest to run the SUP Surfing, Technical Races, and the Relay Race from September 5-10.

Australia’s Shakira Westdorp reacts to the final buzzer of the SUP Surfing Finals, crowning her the back-to-back World Champion. Photo: ISA / Ben Reed
Australia’s Shakira Westdorp reacts to the final buzzer of the SUP Surfing Finals, crowning her the back-to-back World Champion. Photo: ISA / Ben Reed

ISA President Fernando Aguerre, said:

“Our time here in Denmark has been nothing short of spectacular. Past Gold Medalists have continued their dominance and new athletes have emerged into the global spotlight, using this World Championship as a platform to show the world their talent.

“The 2017 edition has been special for the ISA because our years of hard work towards developing the sport of SUP is bearing fruits and taking the sport to new levels. We hope to continue riding this wave of growth all the way to the Paris 2024 Olympic Games and beyond.

“The Team Gold Medal is still up for grabs and this weekend we will see who will emerge from the abundant field of talent and be crowned World Champions.”

The schedule for Saturday’s competition will be as follows:

  • Women’s Paddleboard Technical Race at 12:00pm CEST
  • Men’s Paddleboard Technical Race
  • Women’s SUP Technical Race
  • Men’s SUP Distance Race

The schedule for the remainder of the event window will be as follows:

  • Vorupør
    • September 9 – Technical Race Finals at 12:00pm CEST
    • September 10 – Relay Race & Closing Ceremony

To view the full event schedule, click here.

The event will be streaming live September 1-10 on www.isaworlds.com.

The International Surfing Association (ISA), founded in 1964, is recognized by the International Olympic Committee as the World Governing Authority for Surfing, StandUp Paddle (SUP) Racing and Surfing, Bodysurfing, Wakesurfing, and all other wave riding activities on any type of waves, and on flat water using wave riding equipment. The ISA crowned its first Men’s and Women’s World Champions in 1964. It crowned the first Big Wave World Champion in 1965; World Junior Champion in 1980; World Kneeboard Champions in 1982; World Longboard Surfing and World Bodyboard Champions in 1988; World Tandem Surfing Champions in 2006; World Masters Champions in 2007; and World StandUp Paddle (SUP) and Paddleboard Champions in 2012.

ISA membership includes the surfing National Governing Bodies of 103 countries on five continents. Its headquarters are located in La Jolla, California. It is presided over by Fernando Aguerre (Argentina), first elected President in 1994 in Rio de Janeiro. The ISA’s four Vice-Presidents are Karín Sierralta (PER), Kirsty Coventry (ZIM), Casper Steinfath (DEN) and Barbara Kendall (NZL).