New cooperation between SUP World Ranking and Up Suping, a twinning of information that will reach all of you in 2022.
Since last year, both parties have established a close relationship combining information and calendar of events, especially from Spain. We are passionate about Stand Up Paddle , and we also love competition. And the SWR has a very special format where events and competitors from all over the world have an incentive to be even more recognized in the wonderful world of SUP Race.
For this year, the SWR will make a leap in quality on their website and at an informative level, where Up Suping will enter, to at the beginning of each month offer you a description of the events that will take place worldwide, and at the end an evaluation of statistics from these competitions. This is one of the surprises we had in store to celebrate our 10th anniversary.
Do you know how it works? To make it clearer, whether you are an event organizer or competitor, the SWR explains how it works and some examples from 2021, as well as other points with a view to improving in the future.
Structure and rules of the SUP WORLD RANKING
The SUP WORLD RANKING is a free database for everyone, based on mathematics, where you can find information about SUP races around the world and the results of the competitors. All the races submitted to us are listed in the race calendar, races that comply with the SWR rules are evaluated in the days following the race. These are listed in separate table results of 14″ boards are ranked.
There must be a minimum of 40 competitors, TOP 20 boys and TOP 10 girls will receive points. More details can be found here. Competition is always scored afterwards based on the data returned by the organisers. A competition are scored based on 4 components.
This means that each race that counts towards the ranking will be awarded a minimum of 6 points and a maximum of 20 points.
The event score and the multiplier of the competitor’s placement in the race will give the ranking score. Here is an example calculation: https://supworldranking.com/calculation-of-points/
Which events were the most valuable?
In 2021, there was only one event that received a 5-star rating. The ICF SUP World Championship in Hungary received an outstanding 19.71 out of a maximum of 20 points.
The graph shows the scores of the TOP 10 races, but you can find the scores of all 128 races on our website.
What criteria are used to assess the competitors?
On 1 January each year, SWR opens a brand-new year in the points tables. This is to ensure that we always have the most successful and active riders in the rankings for the current year. You can see the number of registered riders for 2021 here.
Three types of races will be evaluated: long distance, technical and sprint. In 2021, we will only be able to evaluate the results of the long-distance ranking, as the number of technical and sprint races was insufficient. If 80% of the top 20 riders in the ranking did not participate in at least 5 races, the result is not statistically valid.
Who were the most successful male and female competitors?
In the 2021 long distance rankings, the boys’ race was again won by Tituan Puyo, who competed in 13 long distance races, by a huge points margin, repeating his victory in 2020. The table clearly shows that the European riders dominate the field. Many of the great riders of previous years are missing from the top 20. There are some who could only participate in a few races (Noic, Connor, Itzel, Danny, Michael..) and others who could only participate in local races due to travel restrictions and therefore did not make the top list.
In the women’s category, the American Fiona Wylde was the first, the only non-European in the top 10. She competed in 7 long distance races in 2021. There are also many girls who have not been able to compete due to COVID rules.
Many people ask why we only score 10 girls each year. The answer is very simple, if you look at the gender ratio of the competitions. In most cases, the number of female competitors is less than 25% of the total number of competitors.
In many races we can’t even score the women’s race because we don’t even have the minimum 10 runners. We hope to see more women on the start line in 2022. If their number reaches 40% of the total starters, we will change the scoring!
What is the value of TOP riders in the 2022 competitions?
The value of the competitions is determined by 4 elements:
. A number of participants, prize money, a participation rate of TOP competitors, and a number of nations.
So inviting TOP competitors to the competitions will increase the point value of the event. Our aim with this move was to put pressure on the race organisers to invite as many TOP competitors as possible to the events. We firmly believe the presence of iconic riders will help the rise of local SUP. In 2022, riders on the list will reach the following points.
How many competitions could we list in 2021?
There were 197 competitions listed in the 2021 calendar. Some races were cancelled because of COVID rules, some races were not at the minimum of 40 participants so we could not evaluate them (for example the EURO TOUR Lustica Bay race had the biggest names, Michel,T2..etc., there was a prize money but the number of participants was not at 20 so we could not evaluate them)
Despite all this, we ended the most successful race season of the last 3 years with 128 listed races.
How many competitors competed, what was the total prize money?
In 2021, 14 233 competitors competed in races registered by SWR. This number exceeds the results of the Covid-free year 2019.
The number of races has increased, but the prize money is still far behind the 2019 year when $452,226 was distributed to the winners in 84 races. Last year, the total prize money was €137,600 for 128 tournaments.
Based on the numbers, we think that this is an area where our sport needs to improve a lot. It is not possible to attract young people to this fantastic sport if the race organisers, the associations and the board manufacturers cannot provide a decent financial backing that ensures a decent living for at least the professional SUP riders. The current prize money often does not even cover the costs of travel, accommodation and board transport for the winners!
What trends do we see between countries?
Based on the data in the tables, it is clear that European competitions have taken over the dominant leading role in our sport. 9 out of the 10 most valuable competitions were in Europe. France remains the most active SUP nation. In the last 3 years 460 French riders have been ranked and they continue to provide the most TOP riders to our sport.
In 2021, Spain and Russia also made big strides. The ICF SUP World Championships in Hungary gave a big boost to the development of Hungarian SUP and had a good impact on the surrounding countries. This is clearly visible in the increasing number of local competitions. Unfortunately, we received few results from Asia in 2021, so unfortunately, we cannot evaluate that region.
In the Americas, however, life is starting to pick up again, as the Carolina CUP showed, and hopefully, we will see many prestigious events again in 2022.
Australia and New Zealand have been the most dominant countries in SUP for years, but in 2021 they were able to host a few events (I think it is clear to everyone that COVID closures were the source of the problems).
Young talents in 2021
The most important link for the development of SUP is to increase the number of junior and children’s riders. If nearly 65% of the athletes competing in competitions are in the master and grand master categories, we are on the wrong track. We can only talk about a healthy development of the sport if young people will be the foundation and the biggest base of our sport. Currently we see an inverted pyramid with a small base of young athletes at the bottom and athletes over 35 at the top.
As only a small proportion of the competition results returned to us are categorised by age, we cannot provide accurate data on age distribution. It is a great pleasure to see countries where a systematic work with the young generations has already been consciously started.
Alongside France, we could highlight Spain, where almost 50% of the competitions are already attended by under-18s. (the results of this work are reflected in the medal table of the Junior World Championships in Hungary). But also in the Netherlands, Portugal, Ukraine and Italy, young people have started training with great enthusiasm.
Without wishing to be exhaustive, we would like to list some of the young riders to watch out for in 2022, based on SWR results.
- Ethan Bry FRA
- Manuel Hoyuela Rojas ESP
- Donato Freens NED
- Ivan De Frutos Ruiz ESP
- Shuri Araki JPN
- Damadora Mokhniuk UKR
- Cecilia Pimpinella ITA
- Mia Soares Silva POR
- Duna Gordillo Rodriguez ESP
- Réka Slekta HUN
2022 forecast
2022 may be the most interesting season in the last 15 years. As of January 1, there are already 126 races on the SWR calendar, and we’re likely to reach 200 this year.
Never before has there been 2 World Championships in one year. This year, however, the ICF and ISA have announced their own World Championships. In addition, there will be a European Championship in Denmark and SUP 11 City as a Test Event for the World Ultra Long-Distance Championships.
The APP World Tour and EURO Tour have also announced a great competition programme. The national championships are also going from strength to strength and their numbers are growing tremendously.
Our aim is to include all worthy races on our list, showcase the fantastic work of the race organisers to the world and give a realistic picture of the performance of the riders with our tables. Our website will be relaunched in 2022 to provide even more transparency and up-to-date information to our visitors.
SWR Team.
SUP HoeNalu Calednar by SUP World Ranking
Our regular annual calendar of Stand Up Paddle events around the world expands its content thanks to the collaboration of SWR. Thus, our sponsored calendar to HoeNalu, will continue to be present on our website, where we will be adding SUP competitions continuously and based on the SWR calendar.
Now it only remains to see how the 2022 season begins to roll and whether you are an organizer or an athlete, we invite you to follow our publications on the SUP World Ranking over the next year. We want you to have a lot of action and entertainment, and that Stand Up Paddle always brings out the best in you.