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The final entries are in and the stage is set for the 2026 Paddle Europe Stand Up Paddling Championships, with 163 European athletes ready to compete for continental honours in Agios Nikolaos, Crete.

A total of 98 men and 65 women, representing 20 European countries plus Individual Neutral Athletes (AIN), are entered across the official European Championship programme, which will run from 18 to 20 September and feature Sprint, Technical and Long Distance racing.

Across the three disciplines, the athletes account for 432 individual race entries, confirming a strong field for only the second edition of the European SUP Championships.

163 athletes and 21 European representations

The host nation provides by far the largest contingent, with 82 Greek athletes entered in at least one official European Championship race.

Italy follows with 17 athletes, while Germany and Portugal will each be represented by nine. Romania has eight athletes, Poland six, and Cyprus, Czechia and Great Britain four each.

In total, 20 countries plus AIN will be represented across the European Championship programme.

The Technical competition currently has the largest field, with 149 athletes — 89 men and 60 women.

Sprint will feature 143 athletes, with 84 men and 59 women, while 140 European athletes — 89 men and 51 women — are entered for the Long Distance.

Sprint and Technical each bring together athletes from 19 European countries plus AIN, while Long Distance expands that representation to 20 countries plus AIN.

Three days to crown Europe's champions

The European Championships begin on 18 September with Sprint, contested over 100 metres.

The focus then moves to Technical racing on 19 September, with the 1000-metre individual races followed by the Technical National Team Event.

On 20 September, the European Championships conclude with Long Distance, a race that will simultaneously form part of the ICF SUP World Cup programme. A Long Distance National Team Event will also be contested before the European Championships Closing Ceremony.

After a rest day on 21 September, international competition will continue with the ICF SUP World Cup Sprint on 22 September and Technical races on 23 September.

The champions of Szeged are back

The depth of the final entry list becomes even clearer when compared with the inaugural European Championships held in Szeged in 2024.

No fewer than 16 medal winners from Szeged are entered in Agios Nikolaos, and together they collected 23 medals at that first European Championship.

Among them are seven returning European champions, responsible for eight of the titles awarded in Hungary.

Natalia Novitskaia was one of the dominant athletes of the first edition. She won both the Open Women's Sprint and Long Distance titles and added silver in Technical, giving her three medals from three disciplines.

Home favourite Kyriaki Logotheti also left Szeged with three medals. The Greek paddler became the first European champion in the Women's Technical, alongside silver in Sprint and bronze in Long Distance.

Spain's Manuel Hoyuela completed the same three-medal achievement on the men's side. Hoyuela won the Open Men's Long Distance title and added bronze medals in both Sprint and Technical.

Christian Andersen of Denmark also returns as a defending European champion after winning Technical in Szeged, where he additionally claimed bronze in Long Distance.

The Masters field includes two more inaugural champions. Greece's Georgios Fragkos won the 2024 Masters Men's Long Distance title, while Vira Lemekha of Italy was crowned European champion in the Masters Women's race.

Hungary's Csillag Kocsis, the 2024 Junior Women's Long Distance European champion, is another name to watch as she returns to European competition in Agios Nikolaos.

And the list of returning Szeged medallists goes much further. Vadim Korobov, Phaedon Doukas, Marta Apanasewicz, Claudia Postiglione, Martin Teichmann, Penny Tsaoutou, Marlon Daskiran, Skadi Langbein and Sveva Sabato are all among athletes who stood on a European Championship podium two years ago and are back for the second edition.

Four reigning World Champions in the field

The 2025 ICF SUP World Championships in Abu Dhabi provide an even more recent indication of the level of competition heading to Crete.

The final Agios Nikolaos entry list includes 13 medallists from the 2025 World Championships, who collected a combined 16 medals — including four World Championship titles.

One of the strongest stories belongs to Greece's Penny Tsaoutou.

After taking European Masters Long Distance silver in Szeged in 2024, Tsaoutou went one better on the world stage last year, becoming the 2025 Masters 50+ Women's Long Distance World Champion. She also won World Championship silver in Sprint and now has the opportunity to race for a European title on home waters.

Italy's Sveva Sabato follows a similar path. European Junior Long Distance bronze medallist in 2024, she became Junior Women's Technical World Champion in 2025 and added World Championship silver in Long Distance.

Another Italian, Claudia Postiglione, arrives with world champion status after winning the 2025 Junior Women's Sprint title. She also collected bronze in the Junior Long Distance race in Abu Dhabi and had already won European Technical bronze in Szeged.

Hungary's Csillag Kocsis completes the group of reigning World Champions entered in Agios Nikolaos. Already the 2024 European Junior Long Distance champion, she added the 2025 Junior Women's Long Distance World title to her record in Abu Dhabi.

World medallists throughout the field

The international quality goes beyond the four World Champions.

Lithuania's Vadim Korobov comes to Crete after taking silver in the 2025 Open Men's Sprint World Championship, adding to the European Sprint silver he won in Szeged.

Romania's Matei Barbu was World Junior Sprint silver medallist in Abu Dhabi, while Portugal's Lourenço Viveiros took Junior Men's Technical silver.

Greece's Erasmia Malekaki was runner-up in the Junior Women's Technical, while Germany's Benyam Bossack took bronze in the Junior Men's Technical.

The 2025 world podium representatives in Agios Nikolaos also include Maximus Sijrier of the Netherlands, bronze medallist in Junior Men's Long Distance; Hanna Kaminska of Poland, Junior Women's Sprint bronze medallist; Olga Merkulova, bronze medallist in the Masters 40+ Women's Sprint; and Italy's Claudia Luchetta, bronze medallist in the Masters 40+ Women's Technical.

With European champions, World champions and international medallists spread throughout the categories, the second Paddle Europe SUP Championships promises competition of a very high level.

A much bigger week of SUP

The European Championships form the centrepiece of the opening three days, but they are only one part of a significantly larger week of Stand Up Paddling in Agios Nikolaos.

The ICF SUP World Cup programme has 174 athletes entered, representing 25 countries plus AIN, with Sprint and Technical World Cup racing following the joint Long Distance competition with Paddle Europe European titles.

The event will also have a strong development and participation component. A total of 61 U14 paddlers — 39 boys and 22 girls — are registered across the recreational Sprint, Technical and Long Distance races, while the Inflatable Open event adds another 12 entries.

Taken together, the U14 and Inflatable programme involves 73 unique athletes.

Across every part of the competition week — European Championships, World Cup and additional events — 245 athletes from 26 countries plus AIN will compete in Crete.