Canoe Marathon

This version of Canoe Marathon is very different to the so-called Classic Canoe Marathon competition where athletes started in one place and finished in another. A radical change; finding the right balance was crucial. A close dialogue with the national teams has secured the road with the main purpose of creating a spectacular competition with as much action within the view of spectators who do not have to move and are now able to watch most of the race where the start, portage and finish take place.

This course concept opens the opportunity for many potential hosts of an ICF Canoe Marathon World Cup or World Championship, which was not the case previously. It also allows for regatta courses to be used with all the advantage of existing infrastructure.

But Canoe Marathon is much more. The traditional or Classic Canoe Marathon races most often starts in one place and finish in another and involves all kinds of water; river, lakes, estuary and sea or combinations of these challenging paddlers on calm or flowing water with the main objective. The paddler has to take the water as it is found and be prepared if it is necessary to carry the boat around an impassable obstacle.

Many popular Canoe Marathon competitions are raced down sections of river, where the paddler must negotiate the currents, rapids or weirs, or else portage around these obstacles. Some of these events attract over 2000 athletes each year and are often run in several stages over several days.

Canoeing over long distances has been know as long as Canoeing has been an organised sport. For many years these activities lead to national competitions only. Some of the known established events in those days were the Kronborg race in Denmark, later the Devises to Westminster race in Great Britain, and the very colourful Sella Descent in Spain.

International interest first really came about in the 1960's, when national teams started participating regularly in the Devises and Sella events as well as in the Liffey Descent in Ireland. When the Danish Tour de Gudena began in 1968 the international interest for long distance racing increased immensely. In only a few years this race became a big hit with up to 20 countries entering and more than 1000 paddlers competing.

This development and suggestions from several National Federations lead to an informal meeting in 1975 at the Tour de Gudena between the Director of the BCU Gordon Richards, the British team manager Jim Rossiter, the founder of the Gudena race Erik Wilche and the General Secretary of the Danish Canoe Federation, Jorn Cronberg.

It was decided to have a meeting in London in December of the same year with representatives of the British, Dutch, Irish, Norwegian and Danish Federations attending. The purpose was to get the ICF to recognise Canoe Marathon, which was what this meeting decided to name it. The meeting also approved a proposal by Jorn Cronberg for a set of competition rules for the 1976 ICF Congress, aiming to have the ICF to recognise Canoe Marathon as a separate competition discipline based on the fact that more than 20 National Federations were practicing this kind of Canoe racing.

The Congress however followed the Board's recommendation to set up a working group to examine Canoe Marathon before the next Congress. To put more evidence behind the efforts to convince the Board and Congress it was decided to introduce a Grand Prix series of 3-4 events a year for National Teams in K1 and K2 men. The interest and participation was a success from the start, and in 1978 the Congress decided against the Board's recommendation that Canoe Marathon should be a separate competition discipline. The Board had wanted Marathon to be attached to Touring, but instead it was decided to set up a sub committee to prepare competition rules for the following Congress. The 1980 Congress approved the competition rules, but still not a separate committee. Marathon was allowed a sub committee attached to the Paddling Racing Committee.