Gyor, Hungary will stage the first International Canoe Federation Canoe Marathon World Championships featuring official Paracanoe medal events in 2025.
A rule change was passed at the ICF Congress in Antalya, Turkiye on Thursday to officially integrate Paracanoe races in the programme at Canoe Marathon competitions.
These events include 6.8km for KL1 and VL1 and 10.2km for KL2, VL2, KL3 and VL3.
Open class events have also been approved, allowing athletes with upper limb impairments, short stature, intellectual impairments, leg length difference, visual impairment, hypertonia, ataxia and athetosis to race for medals.
The Paracanoe medals events will feature in the ICF Canoe Marathon World Championships which is due to run from September 11 to 14, 2025 in Gyor.
“This opens up another competitive opportunity for athletes,” said John Edwards, Chair of the ICF Paracanoe Committee.
“There are many athletes that want to race more than just 200 metres and this opens up the possibility.
“The other key aspect is that they are allowing other impairment categories to race, such as intellectual impairment, short stature, people with different limb lengths and people with coordination issues such as those with cerebral palsy.
“These are not allowed under the IPC official classification system but through this partnership with Canoe Marathon we can do it.
“This is an important development aspect that will bear fruit in the future.”
The approval by the ICF Congress comes after Paracanoe marathon races featured as demonstration events at the past three ICF Canoe Marathon World Championships.
There were a record 37 entries for this year’s event in Metkovic, Croatia with participants coming from Argentina, Austria, Brazil, Denmark, France, Germany, Great Britain, Hungary, Senegal and Sweden.
“We have already held Paracanoe races three times and that was the test to do an official World Championships next year,” said Ruud Heijselaar, Chair of the ICF Canoe Marathon Committee.
“It is amazing to work with the Paracanoe Committee.
“We have more and more new Para paddlers participating because not everybody wants to paddle short distance.
“It is a win-win situation for Paracanoe and Canoe Marathon.”
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