In a quiet corner of the Deqing County International Convention Centre, three dedicated individuals - Laurent Garrigue, Eric Vignet, and Matthieu Loir - are glued to their screens.
Their conversations are mostly around the more than 60 games happening across the four pitches in Deqing.
Managing Kayak Polo Info (KPI), the trio are responsible for the software that keeps track of all the scores, statistics, cards and much more during the 2024 ICF Canoe Polo World Championships.
Known as Poloweb then, KPI's journey started in 2001. To speed up the result retrieval process after games, Garrigue took the initiative to create a website that would streamline information flow.
“There was no software at the time, and all the results were difficult to obtain. We had to make calls manually to check and verify details,” he said.
“That's when we decided to create a website that makes it easier for everyone.”
Despite their lack of formal coding education, the trio developed KPI out of passion for the sport. Away from Canoe Polo, Garrigue works as a policeman, Vignet in automation, and Loir as a logistics engineer.
KPI, which also has a fourth member in France named Nicolas Trotoux, started with national and local competitions in France.
In 2014, they got their first big break as they were tasked with the responsibility at the Canoe Polo World Championships in Thury Harcourt.
“Poloweb became KPI in 2006. It was pretty basic back then. In 2014, we added more functions and updates such as video overlays," Vignet said.
In 2017, KPI was used during the European Championships in Saint-Omer. Constantly evolving, more features like draw progression were added.
“KPI is not complete yet. We try to innovate and make it better. Our public platform is being used by teams and we want to ensure they have a good experience,” Garrigue added.
When Welland in Canada hosted the World Championships in 2018, the KPI team got its first flavour of working on a competition outside France.
In 2022, they returned to familiar waters in Saint-Omer before adding another feather to their cap in Deqing.
Doing this during time off from work, KPI is hoping to be part of the flagship event when Duisburg hosts it in 2026, and they aim to continue evolving and be part of the events as much as possible.
“We take a vacation from our jobs to come and 'work' here,” Loir joked.
“We are doing this purely out of the love for our sport. Discussions are taking place for 2026 and we hope to continue and do the best we can for the years to come.”
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