All the current world championship medallists in both the women’s C1 500 and C1 200 will go head-to-head in what is shaping as one of the most exciting contests of the upcoming canoe sprint Super Cup series in China and Russia.
Canada’s Laurence Vincent-Lapointe, the standout canoe paddler in the world since 2010, is already red-hot favourite for C1 200 gold when the discipline makes its Olympic debut in Tokyo in 2020.
But the six-time World Champion will be challenged over the 350 metre races in Linyi and Barnaul. Her Canadian teammate and C2 partner, Katie Vincent, is the reigning U23 C1 500 world champion, a three-time U23 C1 200 world champion, and would fancy her chances of overrunning Vincent-Lapointe.
Russia’s Kseniia Kurach won the C1 500 world title this year in Portugal, relegating an ailing Vincent to bronze, while Belarus’s Alena Nazdrova won silver in the C1 500 and bronze in the C1 200 at the same event.
But perhaps the biggest threat to Vincent-Lapointe’s dominance will be Russian Olesia Romasenko, runner-up to the Canadian in the C1 200 in the past two years, and a three-time European C1 200 champion.
Hungary is always well represented in women’s canoe events, and in China and Russia it will be 2015 U23 C1 200 and 500 metre world champion, Kincso Takacs, who will be hoping to make the unique 350 metre race her own.
Belarus’s Artsem Kozyr is set to start favourite in the men’s event, after dominating C1 200 events since 2015. Kozyr is a three-time world champion, but like everyone competing this week, is untried over 350 metres.
Czech Martin Fuksa is the 2015 and 2017 C1 500 world champion, Lithuania’s Vadim Korobov won both the U23 world and European C1 200 titles this year, and Georgia’s Zaza Nadiradze was a C1 200 world championship silver medallist last year.
And Italy’s Carlo Tacchini won the C1 500 silver medal at last year’s world championships, and will be looking to regain his best form after a quiet 2018.
The ICF Canoe Sprint Pre-Super Cup will be held in Linyi, China, on Tuesday, while the ICF Sprint Super Cup will take place in Barnaul, Russia, on Friday and Saturday this week.
