Rental boats have been hailed as one of the key factors in the successful delivery of the first-ever International Canoe Federation Canoe Sprint World Championships on Asian waters.
Uzbekistan became the first nation in Asia to stage the ICF’s flagship event in its 86-year history when Samarkand played host from August 23 to 25.
Around 300 athletes from nearly 50 countries spanning all five continents came together to battle it out for world glory in the Uzbek city.
To offset the cost of the transportation of boats from around the world, the Host Organising Committee invested €120,000.
The ICF worked together with Sports Camps and boat manufacturers Nelo and Plastex to ensure athletes had the best equipment available upon arriving in Samarkand.
Around 240 boats were rented during the World Championships, which proved to be a huge success.
Adnan Aliev, a former Bulgarian paddler who is the founder of Sports Camps, was instrumental in pulling the project together for the World Championships.
“I would like to say thank you very much to the ICF, NFs, organisers and boat manufacturers Nelo and Plastex for trusting us,” said Mr Aliev.
“I think rental boats are a great opportunity to grow this sport and make it popular in different parts of the world.
“We want to make big maps and different hubs for competition and training camps than traditional European locations.
“Rental boats are great opportunities to save costs and time and make it easier to organise together.
“It’s great for federation from out of Europe to experience rentals. We need time for European countries to understand, trust and change their habits.
“I hope we can encourage people to organise events and promote this great sport everywhere in the world.”
Mr Aliev received an ICF commemorative medal from ICF President Thomas Konietzko in recognition of the rental boat scheme in Samarkand.
“I was delighted to see so many of our paddlers compete with rental boats in Samarkand as it is a sustainable way to run events across the world,” said Mr Konietzko.
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“Using rental boats is more sustainable than each National Federation organising transport by themselves and helps us to achieve our goals in reducing carbon footprint at events.
“Rental boats remove any barriers around transportation, ensuring that the biggest to smallest teams have accessibility to the best equipment to compete in a world-class event.
“I would like to thank our partners Sports Camps, Plastex and Nelo and our hosts in Uzbekistan for delivering such a great project.
“The rental boats scheme contributed to an historic ICF Canoe Sprint World Championships in Asia which will live long in the memory.”
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