There have been many memorable moments in a sensational International Canoe Federation season. In the ninth of our moments of 2024, we look back at when sisters Kerry Christie and Emma Christie ended Great Britain’s long wait for a Wildwater Canoeing world title.
Great Britain waited eight years for a Wildwater Canoeing world champion and two came along from the same family.
Sisters Kerry Christie and Emma Christie have made a rapid rise to the top of Wildwater Canoeing.
Positioned in their canoe with Kerry in the bow and Emma at the stern, the Christie siblings are proving difficult to stop.
After winning Great Britain’s first gold medal at the ICF Junior and Under 23 Wildwater Canoeing World Championships for 13 years in 2023, the pair stepped up to the senior stage to end another barren run for their country.
Before this year’s ICF Wildwater Canoeing World Championships, Great Britain had not struck gold since 2016 when Hannah Brown captured the women’s kayak single sprint crown.
It has been a long wait, but Great Britain can now celebrate a world title thanks to the Christie sisters’ success in Spain.
They overcame the French pairings of Laura Fontaine and Eve Vitali-Guilbert and Claire Bren and Lise Vinet to seal women’s C2 classic gold in Sabero.
“It feels so good,” Kerry told Paddle UK.
“We were four seconds down at the split so we had to really pick it up.”
The gold capped an amazing day for Kerry who also won silver in the women’s K1 classic – 14 years after Great Britain last picked up a medal in that event with Brown finishing second in 2010.
“I was really pleased with all my lines – I think they were the best I've ever done them,” said Kerry.
“I just pulled really, really hard. I was very, very pleased with the run.”
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