New Zealand’s ocean ski paddlers secured two top six placings at the 2026 Canoe Ocean Racing World Championships in Spain over the last week, with Rebecca Cole placing 6th in the Open Women’s event and Julia Padrutt finishing 5th in the U23 Women’s race.
On Friday local time , the central beach in Villa joyosa hosted the start of the men’s and women’s SS1 individual surfski races. After a week of great downwind conditions in the build up, it was a relatively flat race with little wind support pushing the paddlers on.
Recently crowned NZ national Champion Rebecca Cole was pushing hard at the front of the race, mixing it up with the best female ocean ski paddlers in the world. She finished in 6th place at her first ocean ski worlds, less than 4 minutes behind Australia’s Jemma Smith who claimed her 3rd single ski world championship title. Reigning champion Kira Bester (South Africa) was second with Great Britain’s Rosie Edward claiming the bronze.
Julia Padrutt impressed in her first ocean ski world championship, placing 5th in the U23 Women’s race. Julia had people talking after she won the overall women’s 5km Eurochallenge event the day prior. Grace Richardson placed 19th in the U23 Women’s category, her first year racing out of juniors.
Gene Prato doned the black uniform for the first time in the men’s race, finishing 23rd overall. Gene has previously raced for South Africa but switched allegiances to represent New Zealand for 2026. Germany’s Gordon Harbrecht won the men’s world championship, with French paddler Pierre Vilella winning the silver medal, and Australian Cory Hill taking the bronze.
Ron Cole placed 21st in his masters 60-64 category.
Gene Prato and Rebecca Cole then paired up for the open mixed SS2 event, finishing 11th, just over 2 minutes behind winners Jemma Smith and Cory Hill from Australia.
Well done to our NZ Ocean ski paddlers!
