ICF Championships in Italy Wrap Up: Results and Recap

SABAUDIA, Italy – The 2026 Stand Up Paddling World Championships wrapped up on October 18 after five days on Italian water, and the final weekend delivered a little of everything: a teenage breakthrough, a pair of title defenses, a broken paddle, a fall in the final seconds and one of the most inspiring stories we have heard from a world championship in a long time.

The event, run by Paddle Worldwide (the governing body formerly known as the International Canoe Federation, or ICF), ran October 14 to 18 with sprint, technical and long-distance racing. It landed in Sabaudia after a move from Taormina, Sicily, following storm damage, as we noted on the event listing. Here is what happened over the last two days of finals, based on the race reports Paddle Worldwide has published.

Rivera Goes Back-to-Back in the Technical

The technical race is the one that rewards board handling as much as fitness: short laps, buoy turns and beach or water starts where packs collide. Puerto Rico's Mariecarmen Rivera came into the October 17 final with a silver from the previous day's sprint and left as world champion again.

Rivera built her lead in the second half and held it to the line, winning in 5:04.28 for a consecutive women's technical title. Paddle Worldwide counts it as her fourth world title overall and her second in the technical. Her plan in the closing stages, in her words to Paddle Worldwide: "don't let those girls get you."

Spain's Duna Rodriguez took silver, 2.68 seconds back, and her compatriot Alba Alonso Frey completed the podium 6.49 seconds behind Rivera. Home favorite Cecilia Pampinella, the 20-year-old Italian who won the sprint the day before, could not get onto this podium despite a loud crowd behind her. Readers who followed our coverage from Crete will know Pampinella's name: she was the standout of the SUP World Cup in Agios Nikolaos last month. Rivera fans can also look back at her win at the Weekend de la Glisse earlier this year.

Sanchez Quetglas Defends, Baxter Medals for the USA

The men's technical final opened in chaos. A clash of boards broke the paddle of Spain's Antonio Sanchez, but his compatriot Aaron Sanchez Quetglas stayed clear of the trouble, took the lead from the start and protected it all the way to the finish for back-to-back world titles. He crossed in 4:37.39.

France's Noic Garioud took silver, completing his comeback after missing last year's world championships in Abu Dhabi.

For American readers, the headline is Connor Baxter. The multiple-time world champion from the United States took bronze.

A Teenager Takes the Women's Long Distance

The long-distance race on the final day is the endurance test of the week, and it produced the biggest surprise of the championships. Hungary's Csillag Kocsis, 19, won her first senior world title against a field full of current and former champions.

The favorites broke away early, and Kocsis stayed with them. With roughly 1,000 meters (about 0.6 miles) to go, she found a gap between boards and pulled away from joint leader Rivera, crossing the line in 1:10:55.71 and celebrating straight into the water. "Someone needs to pinch me," she told Paddle Worldwide, and she said her mother, who watched from home, was on her mind as she crossed the line.

Spain's Esperanza Barreras, 42, attacked late for silver, about 12 seconds back, and her compatriot Duna Rodriguez took bronze 13.49 seconds behind the winner for her second podium of the weekend. Rivera, level with Kocsis in the closing minutes, faded to fourth and missed a medal by about three seconds, according to the race report.

Araki Makes It Three in a Row

After a broken paddle kept him off the men's technical podium, Japan's Shuri Araki bounced back the next day to win a third consecutive long-distance world title. While the leaders traded blows at the front, Araki stuck to his plan and surged in the final stretch to win in 1:04:55.82.

Sanchez Quetglas nearly lost his medal at the very end when he fell off his board in the last seconds, but he climbed back on in time to take silver, 12.35 seconds behind. Fellow Spaniard Lluis Perotti took bronze, 19.69 seconds back. That made it two Spaniards on the men's podium and two on the women's, a strong final day for Spain.

Ginnie Betts and a Different Kind of Win

The story that has stayed with us comes from the masters racing. Great Britain's Ginnie Betts, a mother of three who discovered stand up paddling in 2015, was diagnosed with breast cancer a year before these championships. Several surgeries and a mastectomy followed.

Her doctors encouraged her to stay active. Paddling can help with lymphoedema, a swelling risk after a mastectomy, so getting back on the water became part of her recovery and a goal to aim for: making the start line in Sabaudia.

She made it, at her first world championships, and then some. Betts won gold in the women's 50+ sprint, took silver in the technical the next day and finished the weekend with another gold in the women's 50+ long distance. She jokes that her fellow 50+ racers are each other's "health insurance policies," as she put it to Paddle Worldwide, because as long as they keep racing, she will too. Her advice for anyone thinking about trying something new is simple: don't limit yourself.

Why It Matters

Repeat champions in Rivera, Sanchez Quetglas and Araki show how hard it is to knock the established names off the top step, which makes Kocsis's win at 19 all the more striking. If she keeps racing like this, the women's distance field has a new name to watch. Baxter's bronze keeps the United States on the podium at the sport's top level, and Betts is a reminder that the masters categories hold some of the best stories in racing.

For more from this season, read our recap of the 2026 Paddle Europe SUP Championships in Agios Nikolaos, and look back at Rivera's historic hat-trick at the 2025 World Championships.

Sources

• Teenage talent Kocsis claims emotional victory as Araki launches late surge for long-distance gold, Paddle Worldwide
• How SUP carried Betts through breast cancer to world title in Sabaudia, Paddle Worldwide
• Rivera reclaims technical title in style as Sanchez storms to gold in Sabaudia, Paddle Worldwide

Source: Paddle Worldwide (paddleworldwide.com).