By Nina Jelenc | ECA
Only one day is left until the 2017 ECA Canoe Slalom European Championships in Ljubljana – Tacen (SLO) which will start with an opening ceremony in the city centre of Slovenian capital in front of the town hall this Wednesday, 31st May 2017. The races will be organised in the suburb of Ljubljana on the Sava River from Thursday to Sunday. Athletes from 23 European countries will participate in this year’s edition of the ECA Canoe Slalom European Championships.
Top level slalomists from Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Czech Republic, Spain, France, Great Britain, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Lithuania, Macedonia, Nederland, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Serbia, Switzerland, Slovakia, Sweden, Ukraine and Slovenia will fight for the medals on the Sava River.
The venue, which is famous for its drop, already hosted the Canoe Slalom European Championships in 2005, in addition to three World Championships and numerous World Cup events. Even though 12 years have passed since then, there are some familiar faces from 2005 who also entered the competition this year. Among them Slovenian Peter Kauzer, who won his first medal at the senior level canoe slalom championships that year in front of his home crowd, Czech Štepanka Hilgertova, Austrian Corinna Kuhnle, British Fiona Pennie, German Alexander Grimm, Škantar cousins and Hochschorner brothers, Alexander Grimm, Michal Martikan, Elena Kaliska, Jana Dukatova from Slovakia and more.
A novelty of this year’s European Championships is a change in course construction. In the past editions of European Championships the gate setting remained the same during the entire competition, but this year some gates will be changed after the heats for the semi-final and final. The progression to the semifinal from the heats is 30 K1M; 20 C1M, C1W and K1W; 15 C2M. In the final the best 15 K1M boats from the semi-final will start, while in all the other categories top ten boats from the semi-final will start.
Despite the April’s floods that caused many concerns among the organisers of the event, the venue is ready for the beginning of the championships. “We are planning a big sporting event. Opening ceremony will take place on Wednesday at 20:00 in front of the Ljubljana Town Hall. The programme will be interesting with many performances. The races will start on Thursday in Tacen Kayak centre. The course is well prepared and is waiting for the best European paddlers. We dedicated Thursday and Friday to children from elementary schools and younger, we prepared a special programme for them. We expect the most visitors on Saturday and Sunday for the semi-finals and finals. The preparations of the championships are going well. There are some difficulties, but we are probably world champions in preparing the race with the smallest budget and the fewest number of people involved in the organisation. I think everything will be well prepared and will be on the highest level,” said Jakob Marušič, head of the organisation.
Links
- Official event website: www.slalomtacen.com
- Live results: http://siwihome.azurewebsites.net/canoe123/eca?SessionKey=siwidata.1188
- Livestreaming – Canoe Europe Youtube channel: www.youtube.com/canoeeurope
- Promo video 2: www.youtube.com/watch?v=PCAHCciFAC4
PROVISIONAL COMPETITION PROGRAMME
09:00 – 10:25 K1W, C1M Heats (1st run)
13:05 – 14:00 Team events C2M, C1W Final
15:05 – 17:20 Team events K1M, K1W, C1M Final
11:05 – 13:40 K1M, C1W, C2M Semifinal
15:05 – 16:50 K1M, C1W, C2M Final
11:35 – 13:00 K1W, C1M Semifinal
15:05 – 16:05 K1W, C1M Final
