Saturday 19 December 2015

Pontevedra wants to bid for 2020 Marathon Worlds

Since yesterday, through a statement letter released by the Galician Canoe Federation, Pontevedra has given its approval to become candidate city to host the Canoe Marathon World Championships in 2020.

The Galician city, which this summer will host the European Championships, wants this way to strengthen its presence on the international map through canoeing, sport to which has already been associated for decades through race events and all the paddlers who have been born and raised there.

In the final vote, which will take place during 2016 by the ICF, Pontevedra will face the bids of the towns of Hazelwinkel (Belgium) and Bærum (Norway), the latter home to the prestigious Oslo Kajakklub, located by the fjord in the municipality adjacent to the Norwegian capital.

If so, Pontevedra could join the long list of venues that have already organised these championships and would follow the already confirmed Brandenburg (GER, 2016), Pietermaritzburg (RSA, 2017), Vila Verde (POR, 2018) and Shaoxing (CHN, 2019).

Pontevedra from the air, crossed by river Lérez

Isaquias Queiroz, athlete of the year in Brazil

Canoeist Isaquías Queiroz has been chosen by the Brazilian Olympic Committee as the best athlete of Brazil during 2015.

After his two medals at the World Championships in Milan (gold in C2 1000 and bronze in C1 200) and the three golds at the PanAmerican Games in Toronto, the new pupil of Suso Morlán won the voting over the tennis player Marcelo Melo and the beach volleyball couple Alison and Bruno.

"I thank God and my coach (Morlán) for this achievement. Without him I wouldn't be the athlete that everyone knows nor reach the big goals I'm reaping" were his first remarks after the news were known.

Queiroz, who everything seems to indicate that will attempt at the Olympics in Rio to get three medals (C1 200 and C1 and C2 over 1,000), adds a new step in its relentless rise to sports stardom, not only within the world of the canoeing, but general sport and Olympism in his country.

Monday 7 December 2015

Great participation at the A Lanzada Ocean Race in Spain

Esteban Medina, main favorite, on the start line. Photo: Club de Mar Ría de Aldán
It was held last Saturday on the waters of the Rias Baixas (Galicia, Spain) the 2nd edition of the surfski race A Lanzada Ocean Race, strating from the beach of the same name and with a downwind format. The day, contrary to what might be expected at this time of year was sunny with not much wind, which made the competition go on very calm water, to the joy of some and despair of others, as often happens on these occasions.

Participation, in the same way, had nothing to detract from many of the races held at the height of the season, with 60 paddlers ...

Friday 27 November 2015

2015 ICF Classic Series ranking results

Tom Brennan (IRL). Foto: www.canoe.ie
The ICF marathon classic series are over for the current year with the dispute of the Shaoxing Canoe Marathon in China (site that will host the 2019 World Marathon Championships), so the global rankings of the World Series have determined the winners. After a quick look, you can already ser thta this formula is not established yet as it was conceived, although it is true that has opened a bit more the taste for travelling & competing (as we recently could check in the French Ardèche Marathon). But as usual, the big problem ...

Saturday 21 November 2015

SAS Hurley Classic 2015 - LIVE Streaming

Follow live from the UK on live streaming videa the SAS Hurley Classic of freestyle canoeing, oldest event in the world in this discipline, since 1989:



Tuesday 10 November 2015

Lucas and Boulanger take the win at the Ardèche International Marathon. Kiko Vega claims the singles title

The winners crossing the finish line. Foto: Mikael Anisset for www.midilibre.fr
French crew of Edwin Lucas and Stephane Boulanger won the 31st edition of the International Marathon of the Ardèche, which took place last Saturday November 7th on the 30 km. the villages of Vallon Pont d'Arc and Saint Martin d'Ardèche (FRA). After a few days with fairly high level of water in the river, finally the race was held at a level of about 48 cm. on the Salavas Bridge marker (which means about 140 cubic meters per second).

Surprisingly, the start was given almost 10 minutes before the scheduled time because of the difficulties of the more than 800 competitors at Vallon Pont d'Arc to stay steady on the strong stream.

Monday 2 November 2015

Olimpic champion Tate Smith, banned for two years after doping confirmation

Tate Smith winning his gold medal in London 2012
Tate Smith, front paddler in the Australian K4 who took gold at the last Olympics in London 2012, has been confirmed for a two-year ban after testing positive on stanozolol, an anabolic steroid, which was detected in a routine test in the summer 2014 during the Australian team training camp in Hungary.

After being confirmed positive in counteranalysis, the decision of the Court of Arbitration for Sport has been finally declared, but with retroactive effect and then backdated to the provisional suspension of the athlete, who was on September 8th 2014, so he's gost now one more year to follow. Regarding the respect of the canoeing world, he will probably get some more time.

Stanozolol is the same substance that caused the ban in 2005 of the double olympic silver medalist and world champion in 500 metres Nathan Baggaley, who meant actually his total decline in sports and life itself. He is currently in prison in Australia for a crime against public health, after being found guilty for possession and dealing of methamphetamine.

Thursday 30 April 2015

Eurochallenge Surfski: first race to be followed live by GPS in Spain

A new small step will happen tomorrow in following races live in Elite Kayak's homeland, Spain. It is well known that, unless a helicopter or good bunch of motorboats is taken, it is very difficult to broadcast a race in open sea. But technology comes to the rescue with a very valid method to fill the gap left by the lack of images. Starting tomorrow, the Eurochallenge of Surfski held in Villajoyosa (Alicante, Spain) can be followed live through the movements of each paddler on their onboard GPS. If it work properly, hopefully we can enjoy some great days of surfski. In the frame below should be visible the coloured lines live. About the schedule, we must be vigilant, because the races are subject to wait for the best possible weather conditions for a downwind, which can happen at any time over the weekend.

On the other hand, the race is Spanish National trial to set the team to wear the ESP colors at the World Champs to be held in October in Tahiti (French Polynesia). Along with the best national paddlers, they will be top stars at the starting line like the current world champion Sean Rice (RSA).

Monday 27 April 2015

European Sprint Championships in Racice (CZE)

This Friday starts in Racice (Czech Republic) European Championship Speed. All start lists are already published on the event webpage that also will be uploading live results:

http://europecanoeevents.com/live-results/time-table

We will try our best to cover this championships through our twitter account: https://twitter.com/EliteKayak

This is the gorgeous look that had this morning the venue. We wish I could stay like that for the days of the competition, we would all enjoy it.

(Picture by Anne Dickins, from Paracanoe GB Team:Annedickins24.blogspot.com )

Thursday 23 April 2015

Friday 20 February 2015

Francisco Cubelos gives no chance and gets the spot in K1 1000 to represent Spain for the fifth year in a row

The young paddler from Talavera has been reconfirmed as the great Spanish asset in the star race of sprint canoeing after winning again this morning the national selective trial to set up the teams that will represent Spain in European and World Championships throughout the year. On a rainy and windy day, Cubelos beated Íñigo Peña by just 14 hundredths of a second. The Basque missed another chance to win a trial and avoid another victory (and they already five years in a row over this distance) of the small brother of the Cubelos' family. The surprise was the pull out to Final B of two of the paddlers of the current national K4, Rodrigo Germade and Oscar Carrera, which compromises the crew boats planning for this season.

One of the highlights was the succesful comeback to the top of Teresa Portela, winner in the K1 500 on her return to competition after her maternity, and the great victory in the C1 1000 by André Oliveira, who took no more and no less than 7 seconds on David Cal and more than 9 seconds on the rest of paddlers. On the other hand, Roi Rodríguez is confirmed as a rising star. The young paddler from Kayak Tudense had not enough being third in the K1 1000, ahead of Javier Hernanz (4th), but in the afternoon won with authority in the K1 500 beating Ekaitz Saies and Paco Cubelos.

You can see all the results of the day at this link.

Monday 16 February 2015

Video summary of 2014 in Portugal

The appearance of new video shooting methods and the easier access nowadays to those tools that years ago were just top profesional stuff, are raising dramatically the quality of videos and improving the visibility of our sport to new spectators all around the world. This is something so important for the future of paddling that we should be happy of being able to enjoy it. Today, we are leaving here a good example. The video summary of the competitions during 2014 in Portugal made by its national federation:

Monday 9 February 2015

2015, a new start

We are officially back on the blog with the start of the new season 2015. Starting today, you'll have the latest news from the world of competition, especially in Flatwater and Surfski in this blog, aiming to approach to our readers major events and news all around the world.

We will also try as most as possible to cover the White Water events, as this is a pre-Olympic year, where the selection of quota spots for the next Games Rio2016...