Saúl Craviotto and Alfonso Benavides show their London shape at Spanish Sprint Championships

Frenzy weekend of races last days at Trasona Dam (Asturias, Spain) with the Spanish Sprint Championships, with two of our Olympic paddlers doing their last test before giving everything at Eton Dorney in two weeks. Saúl Craviotto (K1 200) and Alfonso Benavides (C1 200) gave no chance to their opponents and claimed gold with terrific performances, showing that their olympic medal assault is in the right way.

Photo Finish had to decide the medals at the K4 200, amazing race

But not only the mediatic olympic paddlers were taking all the flashes. From our point of view, the main character of the event was junior female paddler Begoña Lazkano, who took six golds out of six races by winning K1 200, 500 and 1,000 and then doing the same with her teammate Amaia Benavente on the K2 over the three distances. These girls, under Ekaitz Saies coaching, are definitely looking forward for some exciting future.

Spanish National Team wins the International K4 Regatta at Valladolid and Sanabria (Spain)

The Spanish K4 composed by Emilio Merchán, Jorge Alonso, Walter Bouzán y Álvaro F. Fiuza claimed victory at the two international races held this last weekend at Valladolid and Sanabria Lake (Spain), with the concurrence of other 5 boats from the National teams of Poland, Czech Republic, Germany, Portugal and Great Britain and about 30 of different clubs from all Spain.

Photo: Federación de Piragüismo de Castilla y León

On Saturday, under a perfect canoeing weather, from the start it was clear that Spain and the Czech Republic were the two dominant teams, with many world medals in their boats. Germany and Portugal were behind fighting for a good place on the wash while Great Britain and Poland were losing a few meters, enough not to be able to keep the pace of the strong leaders.

Carlos Pérez Rial and Club Kayak Tudense, main characters at the Galicia Sprint Championship (Spain)

Last weekend was celebrated at Verducido Dam (Galicia, Spain) the Regional Sprint Championships of Galicia, one of the strongest that can be seen in Spain. Despite some absences, due to the Junior&U23 European Championships, to be held from Thursday at Montemor-o-Velho (Portugal), the different races showed a very high level, with some of the first aces of Spanish Sprint on the water.

Ana Varela claimed gold on 500m. over the 200m. winner Tania Fernández

Many were the races competed, but as the most important to comment, we could say that the 1.000 metres distance is patrimony of Kayak Tudense. The strong club from Tui dominated the Senior Men in kayak with no discussion. They took gold and silver in K4, gold and silver in K2 and five of the 9 finalists of the K1 belonged to them, claiming the four first positions. Gold went to Diego Piña, who got a nice triple crwon leading also the K2 and The K4. It was different on the canoe, where they could only take silver after the pushing of the boats from Náutico Ría de Betanzos. C2 of  Antonio Campos and José Manuel Sánchez, who also made the C4 together with Adrián Edreira and Alejandro Fraga, claimed gold in both disciplines. At Ladies distance of 500 metres, Kayak Tudense also took gold in K1 (through Ana Varela), K2 and K4.

Glenn Eldridge wins a challenging Icon Classic of Surfski

One week ago it was held at the British coast the Icon Classic of surfski. Usually conceived as a 16 km. downwind race from Morte Point to Combe Martin, this time the bad weather conditions that have been on the British Islands during the beginning of the summer forced the organization to make a big change on the race course. 7 metres waves at Morte Point definitely were not safe for padlers, so it was decided then to make a round course with start and finish at Combe Martin.That meant an 8 km. upwind fighting agiants waves of "just" 3 or 4 metres, then U turn and another 8 km. downwind back to the finish line.

About 50 braves took the start, with a high level field including former Marathon World Champion Ivan Lawler, Simon Dark or current National Team members, case of Ben Farrell, for instance. After one hour and sicten minutes of epic paddling, victory was claimed by Glenn Eldridge, who got a few seconds advantage over Ben Farrel. Two minutes later, the third position came to Portuguese from Setúbal Luis Ventura, who left behind the Spanish specialist José Antonio Girón and th race chairman Mark Ressel, fourth and fifth overall. Jenna Ferris was the first lady, leaving behind the former winner Chloe Bunnett.