Words from SUP Junkie
Now in its seventh year, this race has grown to be important in the ICF calendar, and this was its second year as a World Ranking Event.
Hosted by Delta SUP, 2024 was looking to be its biggest number of participants, with almost 350 paddlers from all over the world including the USA, Europe, Japan and Great Britain with multiple world champions in attendance.
Lago delle Nazioni is a beautiful man-made salt-water lake in the Po Delta Park, which is the second largest wetland in Europe, a natural paradise for birdlife including pink flamingos.
The lake was created for recreational watersports in the mid-60’s and this venue could not be more perfect with accommodation at Spiaggia Romea Village and Residence Hotel situated at the top end of the lake.
The British contingent consisted of Ginnie Betts and Lydia Clifton from Cornwall, Sarah Perkins from Wales, Andrea Richardson from the South Coast and Anni Ridsdill Smith (and husband Mike) from Essex.
Day 1 – Technical Race heats and semi-finals – this was held on Friday afternoon, over a 400-metre course with a beach start, six buoy turns and a running finish through an arch on the beach.
Lydia Clifton was competing in the Open Class and was up against a stacked field – she paddled incredibly well to get through the first round, semi-final and into the final.
Next up were Ginnie, Anni, Andrea and Sarah all competing in the 50+ category which is an incredibly strong group of international women.
Ginnie won her round so went straight through to the final and all the other ladies placed in their semi's putting them through to the final.
Day 2 – Tech finals – these were held in the morning – Lydia, in her first international competition, finished well against a truly international field of eight, all from different countries.
She finished 10th overall in the Open class.
In the 50+ final there were four British women in a field of eight – impressive and it proved to be very exciting.
The lake and beach setting were the perfect viewing spot, and the world was able to witness Ginnie come in 1st, Sarah Perkins second with Andrea and Anni placing 6th and 7th respectively.
Ginnie and Sarah both beat favourite Penny Tsaoutou (Greek) who is a 3 x ICF World Champion.
Some great stats – In the final of the tech race, Ginnie would have beaten all the 40+ women and would have placed 5th in the Open class and Sarah Perkins would have been 3rd in the 40+.
Sprints were held in the afternoon of day two.
Again, Lydia battled well and got through to the semi-final – unfortunately, she didn't quite make the final.
It was straight semi-finals for the 50+ with Sarah and Anni in one heat and Andrea and Ginnie in another.
1st to 3rd would get through to the finals and after some epic paddling from the ladies, they all achieved their goal – once again, our four British women were in the final.
The final was straight line sprints towards the beach and meant for exciting viewing and once again, Ginnie placed 1st, Sarah Perkins 2nd with Anni and Andrea placing 5th and 6th. I'm not sure the other paddlers knew what hit them!
It would have been great to be able to celebrate but there was one last race to come on Day 3 – the Distance.
There were some mass starts across all fields and all the women (Open/40+/50+/Juniors) went off together.
It was a 2-course lap of the whole lake, some 12km, and boy, it was a hot one. Flat calm conditions in blazing sunshine does not make for a fun race but this was what these athletes were here for.
We checked into the Live Feed on TotalSUP just to make sure we didn't miss the ladies coming in. Once again, Ginnie was on fire and came 10th overall and 1st in the 50+.
An impressive 3 out of 3 for Ginnie – having just turned 50 she decided to race in her age group, and it could not have served her any better. A brilliant competition for her.
Lydia came in 29th overall and Anni 36th but more importantly 8th in her age category – great results in what felt like a mini ICF World Championships!
Sarah Perkins and Andrea didn't race in the Distance – they both had injuries that flared up after the first two days and decided to rest up on the Sunday – the joy of this was that they had first hand viewing from the beach to watch their teammates.
Sarah from SUPjunkie who was attending this event with her friends, decided to join in the fun and raced in the 5km inflatable race with 72 other paddlers.
It was so easy to borrow or rent boards at this event and after a mass start on the water, Sarah came in 1st in the Kahuna (60+) class.
Anni's husband Mike also entered the inflatable class and came in 30th overall and 6th in his age category.
So, to sum up, some wonderful results and six podiums, four gold and two silver from the 7 athletes who attended – this is a great race to start your season, easy to get to with flights to Bologna or Venice which are an hour away.
Great accommodation which is reasonably priced and a friendly team in Delta SUP to make the whole experience perfect. Boards can be rented to make your journey less stressful and the whole site could not be more perfect.
If you fancy a nice entry into an international race, don't be intimidated by the top paddlers here – they are always incredibly friendly and inclusive and it's a great place to learn from the very best.
We'd like to congratulate all our athletes who attended the Spring SUP Race in Comacchio.