The world’s most talented young canoe sprint athletes will take to the water in Pitesti, Romania, this week for the 2019 ICF junior and U23 world championships.
Athletes from more than 60 countries will take part in an event which will showcase the future of canoe sprint. Many of the athletes competing have set their sights on the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, while others are looking further ahead to Paris 2024 and Los Angeles 2028.
The entry list includes several athletes who have already proven themselves at a senior level, alongside many of the young athletes who first burst into prominence at last year’s Youth Olympic Games in Buenos Aires.
In the U23 division several athletes who have already made their mark at a senior level will relish the opportunity to race against competitors of their own age group.
Russia’s Ksenia Kurach is the reigning C1-500 world champion, and her battle with Alena Nazdrova of Belarus will be an event highlight in Pitesti.
Germany’s Conrad Scheibner will be defending the C1 1000 gold medal he won at the 2018 U23 world championships in Plovdiv, Australia’s Thomas Green has made senior K1 1000 world cup finals this season
One of the most eagerly anticipated clashes this week will be the junior women’s sprint events, where Canada’s Sophia Jensen, a winner over 200 and 500 at last year’s junior world championships, will take on YOG gold medalist Gulbakhor Fayzieva of Uzbekistan and silver medalist Laua Gonczol of Hungary.
In the women’s junior K1 the three medalists from Buenos Aires, Eszter Rendessy of Hungary, Katarina Pecsukova of Slovakia, and Stella Sukhanova of Kazakhstan, will once again go head-to-head.
In the men’s junior K1 Belgium’s Jules Vangeel and Argentina’s Valentin Rossi, silver and bronze medalists at YOG, will renew their rivalry. The minor YOG medalists in the C1, Islomjon Abdusalomov of Ukraine and Jiri Minarik of the Czech Republic, are both entered in the junior canoe competition.
The 2019 ICF junior and U23 canoe sprint world championships begin on Thursday and will run through until Sunday.
