Indoor Ergo Danish Camps, on livestream next Sunday

Good news for kayak fans, most of all those who are not in Copenhagen this weekend. The already traditional Indoor Danish Championships, competed on a line of ergometers facing directly the public as in a theatre, will be broadcasted live on youtube next Sunday morning, CET.

From the Rødovre Centrum, we will be able to follow the "steady" races from the U12 to the senior and masters categories. Olympic stars like Renæe Poulsen will not appear, as they are focused on their winter training camps, but some other tope level paddlers, like Orion Pilo and Pernille Knudsen will be there competing for this alternative winter title.

We will al be able to follow the livestream at this link. And the results will be updated live here.

Csay, McGregor and Kavar were the Marathon World Champions in singles

Very similar races the Women Senior K1 and the Men Senior C1. In both two pairs of paddlers took the lead from the first lap. Twelve times world champion Renata Csay (HUN) and Anna Kova (CZE) quickly opened a gap that went up to one minute in just two laps. The Italians Stefania Cicali and Anna Alberti took the responsibility in the chase group, but never managed to hold the gap. U23 champion Teneale Hatton (NZL) dropped from the group at half race, maybe not recovered 100% of her race on Friday, but made a great comeback and was again in the fight for the bronze medal after the last portage.

Renata Csay in the center, yellow boat. Picture: Jan N

Meanwhile, Renata Csay pulled away from Anna Kova in the fifth portage and made a solo last lap, entering the finish line with more than one minute of advantage. Anna Kova got the silver medal and Stefania Cicali, after a good sixth portage, entered in third position leading the group of five she had led for most of the race.

Antonio Campos (ESP) and Marton Kavar (HUN) decided in the C1 race that they didn’d want a large group around and pushed hard from the start, managing to make the gap bigger on every lap over a group of four that was more into the fight for bronze than into the chase for the leaders. Not far from them, Tamas Kiss (HUN) and David Mosquera (ESP) were fighting for bronze without losing the perspective of a virtual comeback to the leading par, but after 4 laps it was clear that gold and silver were unreachable. 

Hatton, Amorim and Birkett, new marathon world champions U23 after superb races

The Canoe Marathon World Championships kicked off with the Junior and U23 events on Friday 20th at Lake Bagsværd in Copenhagen.

In the junior competition, Hungary smashed the field, claiming three golds out of three races with Tamara Takacs in K1 Women, Adam Petra in K1 Men and Kristof Khaut in C1 Men. 

Raquel Carbajo leads the race with Hatton (in black) and Brun-Lie (in white). Photo: Jan N (DKF)

2 hours later, in perfect, glassy conditions, the U23 K1 Women, and C1 men, set off. After the first lap it was clear that Teneale Hatton (NZL), recently crowned 5000m world champion, wanted to set the pace in order to have the race under her control. After the second portage the front group was reduced to three paddlers: Hatton, Agnes Brun-Lie (NOR) and Raquel Carbajo (ESP), opening a gap of around 30 seconds over a group of six paddlers including Susanna Cicali (ITA), Noami Horvath (HUN) and Nuria Villace (ESP) and Lize Broekx (BEL), among others. The three leaders were careful to maintain the gap, each taking turns at the front to keep everything under control until the last lap. 

Charles Evans: forgotten biography of a late ‘60s Marathon paddler

In collaboration with Sportscene

Nick Harding | London - From time to time a legend may be unintentionally forgotten if they lead a humble existence out of the lime-light post-paddling career or if their successes were not documented.
 

Charles Evans at the Liffey Descent (IRL), in the mid '60s

SPORTSCENE would like to pay tribute to such a hallmark name of '60s paddling resulting from a request from his family to celebrate a decade of incredible achievement.
Dr Charles Evans was a World Champion long-distance paddler and member of the Royal Canoe Club. A modest Briton, he currently lives in Cornwall and has no idea about this article! His illustrious career spanned 7 years, 1963-1970, representing Britain. Highlights, below, included winning 8 National Championships.

1965 – * National Champion: Spain
1966 – * National Champion: Spain
1968 – * National Champion: Britain, Spain * Captain: British team
1969 – * National Champion: Britain, Spain * Captain: British team
1970 – * National Champion: Britain, Denmark * Captain: British team

His reputation took off in Spain, his dominance came from winning one race the most, the Sella, where he took three K1 victories. Below is the featured piece of news at the ABC Newspaper at that time.

Marathon World Cup in Denmark (part II): World Champions Bouzán and Fiuza give no chance

As it’s usual, Sunday was the day for the doubles. Again a grey morning that even ended with some rain during the seniors race. Along the morning, the first victories went to James Allen and George Barnicoat (GBR) in the Junior Men K2, the local Emma Jørgensen and Emilie A. Petersen (DEN) in the Junior Women K2, Mattias Ebhardt and Jens Martens (GER) in the Senior C2 and Fay Lamph and Lizzie Broughton (GBR) in the Senior Women K2. In this last race, the main favorites, Italians Cicali and Alberti, both medalists in the K1 the day before, couldn’t finish the race.

It was time then for the very competitive race of the Senior Men K2, with a few powerful boats but two main favorites, which were Walter Bouzán and Álvaro F. Fiuza (ESP), current World Champions for two years in a row, and Romain Marcaud and Edwin Lucas (FRA), current European Champions.

The start, facing a straight line of 2 km. until the first turn, was very quickly and the favorites wanted to take a good place at the front of the group. Marcaud-Lucas were setting the pace, while some couples had troubles to find the good wash and that even finished with some touches that were repeated in the first turn. Norwegians and British were mostly affected, but finally they could join the main group again arriving aat the first portage.

Marathon World Cup in Denmark (part I): Spanish Iván Alonso claims gold in K1

Last weekend was held at Lake Bagsværd (Copenhague, Denmark) the Marathon World Cup 2012, as a prelude for the Marathon World Championships that will take place at the same spot next year 2013, getting the relay from Rome 2012. And once again, Spain had a strong presence in the final standings, claiming gold in both main categories, the senior Men K1 and K2, through Iván Alonso and the couple Walter Bouzán-Álvaro Fiuza, current world champions for two years in a row. But despite some absences, like South Africa or Hungary, the battle was hard, with many tight endings along the weekend.

On the right, Morten Minde (NOR) leads a crowded group at Lake Bagsværd

With an early start on Saturday, the juniors already gave the crowd a nice race. In the K1 Men, seven boats were in a close fight for the whole race, but finally finished with a sprint between the four on the lead and medals went to Casper Pretzmann (DEN), gold; Miguel Llorens (ESP), silver; and Hynek Chroust (CZE), bronze. In the Women race, another local victory in a tight finish, with Amalie Thomsen (DEN) claiming gold, Amy Ward (GBR) went for silver and Carolina Massagues (ESP) took bronze.

After the juniors it was turn for the canoeists. In a pretty windy day, some had troubles, most of all at turns and the portage entry, where wind blowed sidewards. Then, current U23 world champion, Spanish Manuel Garrido, fell in the water and had to give up, while Nuno Barros (POR) showed a strong performance that finally gave him a comfortable gold medal, followed by Matthias Erbhardt (GER) in silver and Jakub Brezina (CZE) in bronze.

Tomorrow starts the Marathon World Cup 2012 at Copenhaguen

M. Garrido (ESP), training portages today [© Jens Thybo]

From 22 June to 24 June, on Lake Bagsvaerd (Denmark), 165 of the World’s best canoe and kayak paddlers will meet in competition at World Cup Marathon 2012 and struggle for medals under the International Canoe Federation, ICF.

Paddlers from 19 nations have already registered, being Denmark, as home nation, the one with the biggest number of contestants, participating with a national team of 25 paddlers who will fight to the last drop of blood to win metal and honour on home ground. World Cup Marathon is a rehearsal for the World Championships event in September 2013 which has been granted The Danish Canoe Federation (DKF), by the  ICF. This event will also take place on Lake Bagsvaerd.

DKF arranges both the World Championships and the World Cup in cooperation with Gladsaxe and Lyngby-Taarbaek municipalities, Wonderful Copenhagen and ICF.

 

In order to make World Cup a unique experience for competitors, spectators and the press, the organizers have chosen to construct a circular route by the lake so that all races can be followed from the lake shore from start to finish. 

South Africa and Denmark Olympic paddlers announced

This week has seen the first official lists of olympic paddlers going to London 2012 Summer Olympics. As it was clear from some months ago, not without polemics, South Africa will be with only two paddlers, both in the women single competition: Bridgitte Hartley at the K1 500 and Tiffany Kruger at the K1 200.

Also Denmark has officialy announced the paddling competing at the spots earned by their National Team. No surprises, but some tough debate has been around for the last two weeks about the K1 200 spot. The paddlers going to London are:

K1 500 Women: Henriette Engel Hansen

K1 200 Men:      Kasper Bleibach

K1 1.000 Men:   Rene Holten Poulsen

K2 1.000 Men:   Kim Wraae Knudsen

                           Emil Stær

K4 1.000 Men:   Kasper Bleibach

                           Rene Holten Poulsen

                           Kim Wraae Knudsen

                           Emil Stær
You can read the full news in English about this debate at our friend web of the Danish Paddling Magazine (news 1 and news 2)

Kajaksporten i fokus: all the Danish canoeing panorama in one web

This has been a very busy week and all our activity maybe has not been reflected in news on our web. Simply there's work to do in the shadow, but not less important. A big part of our success this last few days comes thanks to our friends of the Danish web "Kajaksporten i fokus: The Danish Paddling Magazine".

This web is 100% recommendable, giving all the ionformation of the Danish canoeing panorama, one of the most exciting in Northern Europe, not only because of the historical success of their paddlers being a rather small country (a large number of world and olympic medals crown their shelves), but also because they are in some way a role model about club managing. You can think about Maribo Kajakklub, for instance, from which I'm proud owner of a racing shirt. Who of us with some years of paddling on our shoulders won't remember legends like Thor Nielsen, Lars Koch (I still remember the first time I spotted him on a K1, at Crestuma in 1995, and at my barely 21 years old I got amazed as nowadays the youngers would do with our Manuel Busto),...

Kasper Bleibach, new world record in 200 m. indoor

This is the video of the world record set this last Sunday by Kasper Bleibach, from the Maribo Kajakklub, at the 200 m. in the ergometer. Congratulations, Kasper!