Competitors in the Devizes to Westminster canoe race, due to set off from Devizes Wharf over Easter weekend, are well advanced in their training for the gruelling event.

More than 200 crews, singles and doubles, are expected to set off for the 125-mile race from the Wharf to Westminster Bridge. Junior crews and others who will camp overnight on the way to the finish will set off on Good Friday but the senior doubles crews, who paddle the course non-stop, are expected to set from 7am on on the Saturday to catch the tide on the River Thames at Teddington.

Among the senior entrants is five times Olympic gold medal winning rower Sir Steve Redgrave, who is swapping his oar for a paddle after taking up kayaking last year.

There may be other celebrity participants, but they have not been announced yet and entry is open right up to the day of the race.

Locally, Devizes Canoe Club is expected to be entering several crews but at the moment they have not been finalised. Dauntsey’s School at West Lavington is entering seven crews: Milly Hewetson and Lucy Moors, Piers Gardner and Odin Bain, David Brooks and Angus White, Sam Nokes and James Green, Beth Hooke and George Ellis, George Fisher and Alicia Bouch and Carol Chau and Jenna Richmond.

Many of the entrants are taking part in the Waterside series of races, organised by the Newbury Canoe Club. The first one, Waterside A, was cancelled because of ice.

The final one, Waterside D, sets off from Devizes Wharf on the 34-mile route to Newbury on Sunday March 25.