After a month of break in this year’s season the biggest European Canoeing events resume this week with the 2017 ECA Junior and U23 Canoe Slalom European Championships in Hohenlimburg, Germany.

The best young canoe slalom paddlers from 27 European countries will compete on the Lenne River between Thursday and Sunday.

The last major canoe slalom event of the year for Junior and U23 paddlers will start on Wednesday with an opening ceremony. The first races will be held on Thursday when paddlers in C2M, K1W and K1M categories (both Junior and U23) will start in the heats and fight for the spots in semi- finals.

On Friday heats in K1W and C1M will be held as well as all the team events. On Saturday semi-finals and finals in men’s K1 and C2 categories and women’s K1 are scheduled. On Sunday the championships will conclude with semi-finals and finals in women’s and men’s C1 both in Junior and U23 categories.

After it became clear the men’s C2 will no longer be a part of the Olympic programme the number of boats participating in this category dropped, therefore there will be no semi-final runs for the boats in this category and athletes will advance from heats directly to the final.

There will be eight U23 boats in the final and seven junior crews as well. In men’s K1 the top 30 boats from the heats advance to the semi-final, and then the best 15 boats from semis starts in the final. In C1M, C1W and K1W categories the fastest 20 boats from the heats start in the semi-final and then the best 10 athletes from semi-final advances to the final.

Organisers expect to welcome paddlers from 27 countries, but some of the medallists from Junior and U23 World Championships which was organised in July in Bratislava will skip this event. Jakub Grigar, Kimberley Woods, Mallory Franklin and Andrea Herzog, who are all also members of senior national teams, are among those who are not on the list of athletes who will participate in Germany.

Nevertheless there will be many young promising athletes showing their skills in Hohenlimburg, borough of the city of Hagen, which is located about 15 kilometres south of Dortmund.

Tereza Fišerova (CZE), silver medallist from this year’s senior European Championships and also silver medallist from Junior and U23 World Championships, will be one of the main favourites for the European Champion title in women’s C1 event.

She will not be the only Czech hope for the medal. Tomaš Zima, Jan Barta, Antonie Galuškova, Lucie Nesnidalova, Vaclav Chaloupka are all medallists from Junior and U23 World Championships in Bratislava and are also coming to Germany this week.

Klaudia Zwolinska (POL), multiple Junior European and World Champion, made a very successful transition to the U23 category and also won a medal in Bratislava, so she will have high goals also for this championships, and Kacper Sztuba (POL) will try to add European Champion title to his Junior C1 World title.

The Austrian team will be represented by strong junior and U23 athletes with Felix Oschmautz, Mario Leitner, Lisa Leitner, Nadine Weratschnig and Viktoria Wolffhardt on the start.

Slovak athletes Marko Mirgorodsky, Eliška Mintalova, Andrej Malek, Sona Stanovska; Spain's Laia Sorribes and Miquel Trave; France's Mathieu Desnos, Cedric Joly; Italian Rafaello Ivaldi; Germany's Stefan Hengst, Thomas Strauss, Florian Breuer, Selina Jones, Elena Apel, Lukas Stahl; a line-up that will ensure top level racing in all categories.

Participating countries: Andorra, Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Czech Republic, Spain, Finland, France, Great Britain, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine

PROVISIONAL PROGRAMME:

Wednesday, 16/08/2017
19:00 Opening Ceremony

Thursday 17/08/2017

10:30 – 18:10 Heats C2M, K1W, K1M (Junior & U23)

Friday, 18/08/2017

9:00 – 13:15 Heats C1W, C1M (Junior & U23)

14:30 – 18:45 Team events K1W U23, C1W Junior, C1M Junior, K1M Junior, C1W U23, C1M U23, K1M U23, K1W Junior

Saturday, 19/08/2017

11:00 – 17:35 Semi-final & Final K1W U23, K1M U23, K1W Junior, K1M Junior Final C2M U23, C2M Junior (*direct final from heats)

Sunday, 20/08/2017

11:00 – 15:30 Semi-final & Final C1W U23, C1M U23, C1W Junior, C1M Junior

Livestreaming will be available on Canoe Europe Youtube Channel:

https://www.youtube.com/canoeeurope
Official event website: http://em2017.holibu.de/en/
Promo video: https://www.facebook.com/kchohenlimburg/videos/1317452394974489/

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NINA JELENC