Sugar eyes more glory at Para-canoe worlds

Laura Sugar used to compete in Para-athletics, where she won multiple European medals in the 100m and 200m

Double Paralympic champion Laura Sugar is chasing more glory at this week's 2025 ICF Para-canoe World Championships in Milan.

Wales' Sugar, 34, has back-to-back Paralympic titles to her name but says the buzz of competition still drives her.

Sugar, a four-time world champion, will line up against the best in the world at the Milan event, which runs from 20-24 August as part of the Canoe Sprint World Championships.

"I like racing and I like competing so I'm never going to shy away from doing that," she said.

Since winning her second successive Paralympic KL3 gold in Paris, Sugar has faced a year of change, which has seen the arrival of a new performance director and coach at Paddle UK.

"It's been a very different year. Quite a few of us have had time out, then we lost a performance director and lost our coach," she said.

"So it's been very up and down. But I like racing. No matter what shape I'm in, if I can go and race, I will."

Despite the changes behind the scenes, Sugar won gold at this year's European Championships in Racice, Czech Republic.

Former Welsh hockey international Sugar says the focus now is on defending her world title.

"I'm a competitor so as long as I've got a chance and I'm on that start line, I will do my best," she added.

"There's some real quality in the KL3 – at the Europeans, second to sixth was separated by just half a second.

"On the day you can finish anywhere and that's the excitement. I just want to be on that start line, give it everything, and hope the speed is there."