More than 200 athletes are involved in the ICF Ocean Racing World Championships starting in Lanzarote tomorrow ©Getty Images

More than 200 athletes will take part in the 2021 International Canoe Federation Ocean Racing World Championships that gets underway at Lanzarote in Spain this weekend.

Despite the absence of the 2019 world champions, Sean Rice of South Africa and Danielle McKenzie of New Zealand, the fifth ICF’s World Championships in the discipline has attracted some of the world’s best performers.

The men's field will include two European champions and two European silver medallists, headed by 2018 champion Esteban Medina of Spain and his team-mate and Walter Bouzan, the 2016 gold medallist.

The ICF Ocean Racing World Champonships that start in Lanzarote tomorrow have attracted a field including numerous European champions and medallists ©ICF
The ICF Ocean Racing World Champonships that start in Lanzarote tomorrow have attracted a field including numerous European champions and medallists ©ICF

The women’s field includes South Africa’s two-time World Championships silver medallist Michelle Burn and two home European Championships silver medallists in Amaia Osaba and Judit Verges Xifra.

Race days have been set for tomorrow, Monday (July 5) and Tuesday (July 6), depending on conditions.

There will be racing in senior, under-23 and junior divisions for both men and women.

Lanzarote has hosted the Atlantic Ocean Surfski race for four consecutive years, from 2017 to 2020, regularly attracting the best ocean paddlers in the world.