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 )

Mruzek and Odvarko in K2 and Tomas Slovak in K1, winners of the Cesky Krumlov River Marathon

This last weekend, with a double session on Friday and Saturday, the Cesky Krumlov River Marathon was held in the Czech Republic, race included into the ICF Marathon Classic Series 2013. While the marathon was held on Saturday over a distance of 36 kilometers , on Friday there was a Sprint competition as an appetizer on the stretch of river that runs through the center of the city, just 250 meters long but with a weir shot included. The winners in this discipline were Richard Hala and Jonatan Sramek in K2 and Tomas Slovak in K1, all of them just arrived from paddling the Fish at South Africa.

Mruzek and Odvarko leading the marathon race. Pic: Jan Homolka

On Saturday, almost three hundred boats gathered on the water of Cesky Krumlov river to face the descent all the way down to the town of the same name. Many contestants, as usual, made it on RR kayaks, but every year there are more who are encouraged to do so on the increasingly popular tables SUP (Stand Up Paddle) as well as in large canoes and all kind of plastics, including canoes with a crew of nine members. Noteworthy is the participation and festive atmosphere at these Central European competitions , as with the French Ardèche or the Irish Liffey, without going any further. One aspect, leisure and tourism, that in Spain is trying to be exploited by the Miño and Cinca Descents, among others, although it is true that the basis of target audience is not comparable.

Sprint World Cup 2 in Racice (CZE) pops up promising top paddlers

Racice (CZE) held the second Sprint World Cup 2013 last weekend. It was confirmed back on track the best Ken Wallace, who seems in this 2013 willing to make everyone forget last season. He won the 500 with conviction and in 1000, with Poulsen winner and Yurenia again in silver, the Australian starred in one of the comebacks of the Cup, going in the last meters from 7th to 3th place with a final quarter of 49 seconds, leaving Hoff at the gates of podium.

In K2 200 a new victory of the unbeatable (so far this year) Postrigay and Dyachenko, who day after day recruit new fans in love with their absolute mastery on this race. However, the 500 is still a bit long distance for them and, after a very quick first partial, they finished second on overpassed by the Portuguese Pimenta and Silva, who are performing at a high level after last summer's Olympic silver.

Lisa Carrington (NZL). Photo: Balint Vekassy

In the women's K1, Lisa Carrington ruled the short races. It seems that paddlers from the Southern Hemisphere are in better shape due to their high season during the European winter, because although Carrington took the 200 as expected, also dominated the 500 over the Germans. It is also true that on this occasion the Hungarian team was not racing in Racice and that could be felt in some of the races, as Hungarian Women always are in the bets for the medals.

But now we can focus more on new values ​​who are slowly looming on the international scene.