SOUTH Hams residents Rachel Booton and Crispin Jones have been selected to represent Team GB Stand Up Paddleboarding for the ICF SUP World Championships in Abu Dhabi in October.

Rachel is a PE teacher at Kingsbridge Community College and Crispin runs Waterborn SUP, a paddleboard school, also based in Kingsbridge.

On June 7 and 8, GBSUP hosted the National Championships down in Falmouth, the results from which were used to select the team to send to the World Championships.

Conditions in Falmouth were tricky that weekend with strong winds and bumpy sea conditions but that played into the locals’ skill sets, being more used to the challenging sea conditions that our coastline can often provide.

With good results over the weekend came a rather special email headed “Congratulations - ICF World Championships Placement” from the selection committee shortly afterwards.

Taking place between October 29 and November 2, the team will be covering different styles of racing, from sprints, technical and distance. Crispin has been selected to do the distance course and Rachel selected for the tech course, so now the road to the World Championships really starts to ramp up for them and the rest of the squad.

Stand up paddleboarding, still being a relatively new sport, requires all athletes to self-fund any trips to represent the country. The pair are looking for any individuals and/or companies that would like to help sponsor them to fly the flag for Team GB, and indeed Kingsbridge, in the United Arab Emirates.

No doubt you will see them practicing across the South Hams in the coming months. To help ensure they can get to compete, please head to https://gofund.me/310a842d and donate what you can. What an achievement for our community to have as sporting aspirations for younger generations in the region.