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Where did it start ? Sprinting has been a mainstay of SUP in the UK since the first boards arrived on our shores and the first adopters picked up a paddle . Doing fun sprints with your mates or learning to catch waves standing up put sprinting right at the heart of the foundation SUP technique . Many of the early races were held at the club level , so were , in reality , versions of a sprint being short in distance and accessible for newcomers to try , with the Coke bottle races being a great early example . Simple drop in a bottle tied to a weight , and you have yourself a marker to race around . Sprinting at its core . From
there , many of the big events tagged in fun SUP sprints as a way to fill the gap around the main distance race , encouraging paddlers of all levels to give it a go .
What about now – is competitive sprinting still a thing ? Over the years , with the development of the sport and the progression of paddlers taking part , distances and formats have become longer and more challenging , but sprinting has always been a fundamental part of the sport . Whilst it did not have the limelight or any real specialist sprinters who only did short distances , sprinting could be found at
most events , culminating in the Sprint National Championships held at the National Watersports Centre in Nottingham as part of the then British Canoeing Sprint Regattas .
So what is considered a sprint ? The easiest way to think of SUP sprinting is to compare it to athletics and track sprinting . Sprinting is competitive SUP in its shortest forms , taking place over distances of up to 500m . Beyond that , you can consider it starting to become a middle-distance race , just like a 1500m track race at the Olympics . Typically , sprints are held over 100m , 150m and 200m in various formats across flatwater and beach locations .