Canoe kayak national sprint championships kick off on Regina's Wascana Lake

Regina paddler Baer Robertson is used to travelling for competitions, but the recent 2025 Canada Summer Games medallist says the this year's sprint national championships will be a "completely different experience."

"I can just go home after I'm done racing and sleep in my own bed for once," Robertson told The Morning Edition's Adam Hunter. 

"Usually, nationals is this whole big thing where you have to get on a plane and fly away out east," said the 18-year-old, who was getting ready to compete in the 200-metre and 500-metre canoe sprint races on Tuesday.

Robertson is one of more than 800 athletes from across Canada competing at the 2025 Canoe Kayak Canada Sprint National Championships this week at Regina's Wascana Lake. 

Athletes — including Olympians, national team members and international competitors from 40 clubs across Canada — will compete in canoe and kayak sprint events for both single competitors and teams.   

The event is being hosted by the Wascana Racing Canoe Club, which is also Robertson's club.

Canoe Kayak Canada — the national governing body for competitive canoeing and kayaking — is committed to moving the championships around, said Jan Hanson, the communications lead for the host committee for the championships. 

"It comes west every five years. And frankly, this is probably the only world-class venue in Western Canada that could host a race like this," Hanson said of Wascana Park. This is the fifth time Regina has hosted the event, the first being in 2009. 

Hanson said the area where the championship is taking place looks different now than it did in 2009. 

"The good news is there's shade," she said, adding that is especially important with the hot temperatures expected in Regina this week.

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