Tuesday 2 August 2016

Live Streaming of MiniSella

Link for Live Streaming tomorrow Wednesday August 3rd of the Mini Sella, U14 race held in Ribadesella prior to the big onw on Saturday. Link: http://www.facebook.com/ifomogrupo

Sunday 24 January 2016

Thoughts about the ICF proposal for the modification of the canoeing program in Tokio 2020 (and Part 3)

(This article is the third and last of this series. You can read here Part 1 and Part 2).

[NOTE OF THE AUTHOR: Please, have in mind that this article was made for an Spanish audience and trying to explain the information arriving to our country. It may happen that this information is incomplete (no German or Hungarian news, for instance, languages too difficult for this writer) or vision may be completely different depending on the country you live in. All feedback will be appreciated, do not hesitate to comment]

Well, at this point, we agreed that we would today revisit the interests mostly at a street level, which seems out of range for the control of the marketing department of Coca-Cola (kidding... and by saying Coca-Cola, I mean Red Bull or any other brand that comes to your mind).

Here I have made a mental map that divides the world into two. Two main areas of influence, one in favor of leaving things as they are (or making changes according to this status) and another in favor of change and give especially much more weight in the decision to gender parity. The first is made up of Great Britain and Russia. Second, Canada and Australia. This division is not fictitious nor capricious. Anyone who regularly follow in the world of canoeing publications from diaries or magazines to social networks, youtube, etc., will be able to guess where the shots come from, definitely I will not discover gunpowder today. Much of what I will present here is already known for some time, but at least I try to summarize so you can understand as clearly as possible.

Why Great Britain and Russia are not intended to give greater weight to women? Because that would force to cut down men disciplines. In the case of K2 200 and Slalom C2 the thing seems already clear, in Rio the last medals will be given in these races. In fact, the K2 200 was a rookie career in London, replacing the K2 500. Well, then let's go back for a while to London 2012. Who showed the greatest display of power of all the Olympics, according to me? Two gentlemen called Yuri Postrigay and Alexander Dyachenko. Where are they from? Russia. In the same race, the bronze went to two other regulars on the podiums in 200m, Liam Heath and Jonathan Schofield. British, to be more explicit.

Let's see the Slalom C2. Gold for Timothy Baillie and Etienne Stott, silver for David Florence and Richard Hounslow. Where are these four paddlers from?...

Thursday 21 January 2016

Thoughts about the ICF proposal for the modification of the canoeing program in Tokio 2020 (Part 2)

(Continuing from Part 1, which you can read here)

As commented, this whole thing encloses a series of interest, more or less dark, but some of which are very easy to see. The first and foremost in my view, it is the perpetuation of the ruling classes. It is well known that the president of the ICF, José Perurena, is also president of the Organization of the World Games and a permanent member of the IOC, more after his membership was extended after reaching the age of retirement, making his weight within the Committee go through next level. Knowing as Jacques Rogge, after the election of Tokyo in the assembly of Buenos Aires 2013, declared his willingness to step down after the Games in Rio ... then there's no need to be very smart to connect some dots and see that Perurena is very interested to get on well with his colleagues in the IOC.

So far, everything fine. Anyone who says that this effort in reducing costs and reaching gender parity has been asked to all federations, can also be right, but a different thing is the effort put in each federation to make it happen. Some of them are not very willing to oppose too, since its weight in the Olympic program is much lower. That is the case of canoeing ... or not, wait, didn't we said that the president of the ICF is a heavyweight in the IOC? ... Well, then maybe Perurena's weight is just personal, it doesn't belong to canoeing as a sport.

This is already explaining things a bit more. Not to mention the precedent, bleeding, ...

Thoughts about the ICF proposal for the modification of the canoeing program in Tokio 2020 (Part 1)

I've never been to the Olympics. I'm not even halfway to be able to get the flip flops of the paddlers in Rio this summer. And, unfortunately, it seems that over the years my chances of competing in future editions of the Games will have to be expressed in scientific notation.

None of my family is also linked to the ICF, or the IOC, or trademarks or institutions that finance or profit from canoeing or any of its derivatives. And judging by the laughter when this topic appears, they have even less faith than I in that one family member ends on top of an Olympic podium. If that member is me, the laughter becomes almost insulting.

Well, at this point you will be thinking what the hell is this guy telling me. It is to make it clear that everything I will say next is interest free. Although I actually think it is full of interest, the interest a purely personal opinion can have, but that is the fruit of love for our sport and the passion with which any spectator enjoying on TV (or, hopefully, live) how the best paddlers in the world make fly on an Olympic venue the same boat that we, mortals, have been woefully dragging on our village waters that morning.

As you know you who follow us on our Facebook page, last week ICF moved to IOC its proposal for the redistribution of categories and disciplines facing the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games,...

Sunday 17 January 2016

Río Negro, final stage: Pinta and Mozzicafredo reign over Río Negro for the 13th time. Alonso claims his first victory

Río Negro saw yesterday afternoon  the final of the XL edition of its Regatta with the traditional stage between San Javier and Viedma, with the arrival to a crowded river promenade full of people who could enjoy a great sunny day by the river.

Néstor Pinta and Martín Mozzicafredo celebrate their record 13th absolute victory in Río Negro. Photo: DeViedma.info

In the race itself, no surprises. The last stage followed the expected script. On the entrance to Viedma there was a leading group of five boats, where Balboa and Guerrero marked the pace downstream, looking for the buoy where they would have to return back to Viedma to face the finish line upstream.

It was clear that they were tightening the pace and the group started losing units. Finally, three K2s faced the sprint in front of the crowd at the Viedma shore.