National trials have decided Spanish teams for the Sprint European Championships

Last weekend, through two different trials, held at the venues of Verducido (Galicia) and Trasona (Asturias), Spain have decided its teams to paddle at the European Championships to be held at Zagreb (CRO) for the seniors in late June and at Montemor-o-Velho (POR) in mid July for juniors and U23.

No doubt about the main character at this trials: Javier Hernanz, after his olympic dissapointment, has won the three events he was competing at: K2 500 and K2 1.000, with his usual partner Diego Cosgaya, and also the K1 5.000, where he got the bronze medal at World Cup 1 at Poznan, last week. Also to remark the victory of Íñigo Peña in K1, both in 500 and in 1.000, earning the right to represent Spain at both the senior and the U23 Europeans, as it's also the case of Carlos Arévalo. This last one, who already showed a great performance at the 200 metres Spanish Cup, winning both K1 and K2, took this time the K1 spot, leaving second the main favourite, the Basque Ekaitz Saies. Something similar happened at the K2, where almost nobody was betting for youngsters Paulino Otero and Cristian Toro, who surprisingly left out of the National Team current and former World Champions, like Fran Llera, Pablo Andrés or Carlos Pérez Rial.

The olympic stars shine in Duisburg

One of the most beautiful and reliable regatta courses in the world, the one of Duisburg (Germany), brought us this last weekend many great races at Sprint World Cup 2.

The great Duisburg venue (click on the image for full size)

But out of all the disciplines and distances, in Elite Kayak we have a special predilection on the K1 1.000 Men, where actually meet all those considered like “the big ones”. And not many of them usually miss the competitions, always with at least 5 or 6 first line paddlers at the start. This time, at Duisburg, we had the privilege to see a race that could be not much different from the one we will see at London Games. 

Oscar Chalupsky wins his 12th Molokai

At 49, Oscar Chalupsky makes even bigger his legend by winning his twelveth Molokai last Sunday. This race, included in the Sursfski World Series, takes part from Molokai Island and goes through the Kaiwi Channel to end up at Oahu, in the island of Hawaii. 52 kilometres of perfect downwind on the Pacific Ocean. The overall victory went to the doubles of Olympic champion Greg Barton and his partner Zsolt Svadovski, with Chalupsky seconf at the finish line and first individual, while third place went to another Olympic gold medalist, Clint Robinson, showing the great level of this race.

From the very start, contestants showed different tactics. The young local star Patrick Dolan took on his own a Southern way, having a solo paddle for most of the race. The big group, with Chalupsky, the South African Bouman and Australians Gardiner, Kenny, Taylor, Tutt, among others, took a straight line, while Clint Robinson and Barton/Svadovski chose a Northern route to paddle both boats together.

Video of the Spanish Marathon Cup

Walter Bouzán and Álvaro F. Fiuza (K2) and Iván Alonso (K1), winners of the Spanish Marathon Cup

Walter Bouzán y Álvaro F. Fiuza won the Spanish Marathon Cup held this last Saturday at Ribadesella (Asturias). Meanwhile, Iván Alonso claimed victory on K1 after a superb race.

Walter Bouzán and Álvaro F. Fiuza paddling to victory

In a quite bad day due to cold and rainy weather, the 4 kilometres course got crowded to see the evolutions of some of the world top paddlers fighting to go into the national team that will represent Spain at Marathon World Cup in Copenhagen (Denmark) in June. It was also highly expected the performance of the new couple formed by marathon legend Manuel Busto and his 24 year old partner Emilio Llamedo, who were also trying to qualify and win this Cup in their first official appearance.