Breaking Records & Shocking Upsets at ICF SUP World Champs '25

The ICF Stand Up Paddleboarding World Championships in Abu Dhabi last weekend featured record-breaking performances, first time world champions, and shocking upsets. Mariecarmen Rivera from Puerto Rico became the first SUP racer in the open category to win gold in all three events: sprint, technical, and distance racing. She came close last year, but not everything went her way and her best result was a silver medal in the distance race. This year, she was untouchable. She went from winning her first world title in sprints on Friday, to being the first open paddler to hold all three world titles at the same time on Sunday.

One of the most thrilling moments of the weekend was in the men’s technical race when Aaron Sanchez (ESP) sprinted his heart out in the final seconds of the race to get ahead of Shuri “Shrimpy” Araki (JPN) who had been favoured to win. For many race fans, this was a shocking upset. But paddling legend and multiple SUP World Champion Michael Booth predicted it from the commentary box: Aaron had looked comfortable in second place, and his slower but more powerful stroke gave him an advantage over Shrimpy in the final metres of the race.

Michael Booth of Booth Training and Boothcast flew out to Abu Dhabi to race the long-distance race on Sunday, but hopped into the commentary box on Saturday to talk about the tech races. From the perspective of a longtime elite racer as well as a coach, he brought brilliant insight to the commentary. After the racing wrapped up, Boothy then joined Betsy and Billy on Paddlecast to talk through his distance race (6th place) and the rest of the racing.

On the latest episode of Paddlecast, Boothy shares his favourite moments of the tech racing, which athletes stood out and impressed him the most, the biggest gap in his own 2025 training plan (ironically, time on his paddleboard), how SUP draft trains work, the final distance race sprint-off between Shuri and Rai Taguchi (JPN), and whether 10 km is really a long distance race. And more.

Click here to listen to Michael Booth on Paddlecast on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

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