Olympic and world champions are among 70 athletes from 18 countries who will compete in Canoe Slalom events at the 2024 International Canoe Federation Hangzhou Super Cup.
The first-ever multi-discipline Super Cup will run from October 11 to 13. It will have a massive prize money of $350,000, and athletes will push for one last splash at the end of a long season.
Along with Canoe Slalom, Canoe Sprint, Canoe Polo and Canoe Marathon competitions will take place in the 2022 Asian Games host city.
Hosts China boasts the biggest squad in Canoe Slalom with 25 athletes - including Paris 2024 Olympians Shiting Li and Xin Quan - set to take to the waters at the Fuyang Water Sports Centre.
France, Great Britain and Czechia have the next biggest representation with six athletes each.
For France, men’s canoe single Olympic champion Nicolas Gestin will lead the way along with men’s kayak single silver medallist Titouan Castryck while kayak cross world silver medallist Camille Prigent will be the one to watch out for among women.
Great Britain also has a stellar line-up featuring Games C1 silver medallist Adam Burgess, two-time Paris 2024 bronze medallist Kimberley Woods and kayak cross silver medallist Joseph Clarke.
Jiri Prskavec will arrive in Hangzhou with a point to prove after a disappointing eighth-place finish at the Olympics.
The Czech Tokyo 2020 gold medallist will be high on confidence having claimed first place in the K1 at the ICF Canoe Slalom World Cup Final in La Seu earlier this month.
Fresh from winning a C1 gold medal at the World Cup in Ivrea, Gabriela Satkova will also look to continue her winning form after heartbreak in Paris.
Olympic K1 champion Giovanni de Gennaro is undoubtedly the star of the five-member Italian team. Slovenian hopes will rest on Tokyo 2020 C1 champion Benjamin Savsek and two-time world bronze medallist Eva Alina Hocevar.
Australia is bringing three athletes, including kayak cross Olympic champion Noemie Fox, while Evy Leibfarth, bronze medallist in the event, will be the only representative from the United States.
Joining the one-woman show is Poland’s women’s K1 Olympic silver medallist Klaudia Zwolinska.
Andorra, Austria, the Netherlands, Slovakia, Ireland and Ukraine are also sending one athlete each while Chinese Taipei and Spain have two athletes each.
“For the slalom athletes community, the Super Cup will be a first-ever experience,” ICF Canoe Slalom Committee chair Jean-Michel Prono said.
“We never had such an invitational competition where the best-ranked slalom athletes gathered at the end of a season already full of great competitions.
“The response of these athletes to the invitation is amazing, bearing in mind that the Super Cup is organised two months after the Olympics, at the end of an exhausting season.
“The beauty of the Super Cup is that they get to witness other elite ICF competitions with a similar invitational programme.
“It is a unique opportunity for them and the ICF to create a better understanding of the ‘paddle sport’ approach that we are promoting.
“The competition in Hangzhou will be an opportunity for the ICF and Canoe Slalom Committee to test a new competition programme and an official training session of athletes on the competition course design before the qualification heats.
“On top of all these innovations, we are pleased to showcase multiple events in China thanks to the support of the Chinese Canoe Association and Hangzhou City and develop the organising capacity in this part of the world.”
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