Two of Egypt’s most promising young sprint canoe athletes identified as potential future Olympians have arrived in Romania for a high-performance training camp leading up to this year’s International Canoe Federation Junior and U23 Canoe Sprint World Championships.

Sohail Ahmed and Mahmoud Ahmed are both canoe sprint athletes who are seen as two of Africa’s future stars. The training camp, funded under the ICF’s development program, will be held at Romania’s high performance training centre “Nicolae Navasart” Snagov National Sports Complex.

The complex is used for the preparation of Romanian Olympic and national teams on the shore of Lake Snagov. The two Egyptian athletes will train with the Romanian national squad in a pilot scheme which could be extended to other National Federations in the future.

They will work with experienced coach and former world medalist Nichita Sergan, who has been involved in several ICF Talent Identification Programs.

“This will be a wonderful opportunity for these athletes to learn from world-leading coaches in a very professional environment,” ICF vice-president, Cecilia Farias, said.

“The growth of canoeing in Africa has been very exciting, and there are lots of reasons to be optimistic about the future. Identifying exciting athletes from across Africa, and then including them in our development program, will give the sport an important leg-up.

“By the time the two athletes hit the start line at our world championships they will have received almost two months of intensive training. We can’t wait to see their progress against the best young athletes on the planet.”

Both Sohail and Mahmoud have competed at Arab and Egyptian Championships. This year will be their first world championships. The ICF thanks the Romanian Canoe Federation for its support of the pilot program.