Three-time Olympic gold medallist Sebastian Brendel heads an impressive list of athletes returning to ICF Canoe Sprint World Cup action this weekend when competition shifts to the German city of Duisburg.
Brendel and many of his German teammates sat out last weekend’s opening World Cup in Szeged, Hungary, but are back in full force for the final World Cup of the season.
Also making a welcome return to action will be Brazil’s Isaquias Queiroz, who twice chased Brendel to the finish line in Rio – in the C1 1000, and then alongside Erlon Silva in the C2 1000.
Queiroz will renew his battle with Brendel and Czech Martin Fuksa in the C1 in what is shaping to be one of races of the weekend, but all three are sitting out the C2 event.
Last year’s C2 1000 World Champions, Germany’s Yul Oeltze and Peter Kretschmer, have also been named in the impressive home team for Duisburg, as has Tina Dietze and Franziska Weber, although they will not be racing in the K2 500 event in which they won silver in Rio.
They will also be racing in different K4 500 combinations.
The German men’s K4 team which dominated the new 500 race last season will be back in the water this weekend. Max Rendschmidt, Ronald Rauhe, Tom Liebscher and Max Lemke will also benefit from the absence in Duisburg of the Spanish K4, who won in Szeged.
Czech Josef Dostal will be back in action this weekend, the Olympic silver medallist the only big name to be missing from the K1 1000 in Szeged. However Portugal’s Fernando Pimenta, who won the race in Hungary, will not compete in Duisburg.
The biggest names in Hungarian canoeing will once again be missing, but New Zealand will be close to full strength, although there will be some line-up changes.
Most significantly, two-time Olympic gold medallist Lisa Carrington will team up with world championship gold medal partner, Caitlin Ryan, in the K2 500, after winning gold with Kayla Imrie last weekend.
Carrington will once again skip the individual events this weekend, as will Great Britain’s K1 200 Olympic gold medallist, Liam Heath, who will focus again on the K4 500.
