The 2018 ECA Canoe Sprint and Paracanoe European Championships kick off this Thursday in Belgrade, Serbia, with the event also serving as the qualifying race for the 2019 European Games in Minsk.
Around 700 athletes from 40 European countries will fight for the European Champion titles between Friday and Sunday. The list of participating athletes includes multiple Olympic, World and European championships medallists, such as Saul Craviotto, Marcus Walz, Cristian Toro, Natasa Janics, Danuta Kozak, Dora Lucz, Tamara Takacs, Franziska Weber, Max Hoff, Tom Liebscher, Aleh Yurenia, Josef Dostal, Martin Fuksa, Emma Jorgensen, Rene Poulsen, Maxime Beaumont, Sara Guyot, also Manon Hostens, who won Wildwater Canoeing World Champion title in Switzerland this weekend, Zaza Nadiradze, Carlo Tacchini, Marta Walczykiewicz, Fernando Pimenta, Ivan Shtyl, Alexander Kovalenko, Viktor Melantyev, Milica Starović, Marko Tomičević, Milenko Zorić, Ivana Mladkova, Lasma Liepa, Oleh Kuharyk and many more.
The best paracanoeists will also be competing in Belgrade. On the entry list we can see big names like Emma Wiggs, Jeanette Chippington, Charlotte Henshaw, Jonathan Young, Ian Marsden, Nicolas Beighton, Markus Swoboda, Edina Mueller, Ivo Kilian, Robert Suba, Federico Mancarella, Jakub Tokarz, Mihaela Lulea, Alexandra Dupik, Helene Ripa, Serhii Yemelianov and more.
One of the strongest teams at the championships will be Serbia, and they expect a great success in front of their home crowd.
“It is a great honour for us to welcome Europe’s best paddlers after seven years,"Serbian Canoe Federarion President, Mirko Nisovic, said.
"A lot has changed since 2011. We have made progress in organisation, activities of the federation as well as in competition sense. We won one medal then, but now we believe we can improve this result.
"The organisation of European Championships is a great challenge for us. Our goal, besides good results, is to send the nice picture out of Serbia and to promote canoeing to Serbian youth."
On Friday the 1000 and 500 metres heats and semifinals will be contested, on Saturday paracanoe VL finals, 1000 metres and 500 metres finals, as well as heats and semi-finals in the 200 meters events. On Sunday the championships will close with the paracanoe KL finals, remaining 500 metres finals, 200 metres finals and 5000 metres events.
The European Canoe Association and Serbian Canoe Federation will stream the European Championships live, but due to TV rights limitations, countries whose television stations have bought the TV rights will be, unfortunately, geo-blocked. The following countries will be geo-blocked: Belarus, Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Poland, Serbia, Slovenia, Slovakia.
Some canoeing will be available on EBU news services. The streaming will include Friday’s 1000 and 500 metres semi-finals (15:00 – 18:00), Saturday’s 1000 metres and K4W 500 metres finals (10:00 – 12:30), Paracanoe VL finals, 200 metres heats and semifinal (14:55 – 18:00), and Sunday’s parakayak finals (8:30 – 10.05), 500 metres and K4 1000 metres finals (10:30 – 12:20), 200 metres finals (13:00 – 14:40) and 5000 metres events (15:15 – 18:00).
When available the link for livestreaming will be published on our website and our social media – Canoe Europe Facebook page and Canoe Europe Twitter. After the championships, when the TV rights limitations will be over, the video footage will be also available on our Youtube Channel Canoe Europe (in the first days of the following week).
Event website: https://www.kajaksrbija.rs/takmicenja/2018-eca-canoe-sprint-and-paracano...
RESULTS will be available here: http://www.europecanoeevents.com/liveresults?gmt=2&gmt2=-120
Timetable (03/06/2018): https://canoe-europe.org/preview-file/serbia2018-timetablev4-1869.pdf
Countries list (02/06/2018): https://canoe-europe.org/preview-file/serbia2018-country-listv2-1853.pdf
Competitors list (02/06/2018): https://canoe-europe.org/preview-file/serbia2018-competitorslistv1-1851.pdf
NINA JELENC
