The swinging doors at the last chance saloon will be thrown wide open for one last time this week for a bunch of European sprint paddlers hoping to pick up the handful of Paris Olympic quotas still available.
The frenetic action kicks off on Wednesday in Szeged, Hungary, when paddlers try to snare the one boat quota available in the men’s and women’s K2 and C2 500. Adding to the intrigue, a handful of paddlers not seen on the water during this Olympic cycle will line up in the starting blocks.
A total of 21 countries will line up over three heats in the men’s K2 500. Among those hoping to grab an Olympic quota will France’s Guillaume Burger and Maxime Beaumont. The host nation does not automatically qualify for a K2 quota, so Burger and Beaumont will need to win in Szeged.
Beaumont, a silver medalist in the K1 200 in Rio, is hoping to get to a fourth Olympic Games, while Burger made his debut in Tokyo.
Italy’s Manfredi Rizza, the K1 200 silver medalist in Tokyo, teams up with Tommaso Freschi as he aims for a third consecutive Olympics.
There will be 15 countries vying for the single boat quota available in the women’s K2 500, including European heavyweights Hungary and Spain.
Host nation Hungary will be hoping Reka Kisko and Janka Rugonfalvi Kiss can grab the one boat quota missing from their Paris locker, while Deborah Kerr and Emma Russell are hoping to snare Great Britain’s first tickets for this year’s Games.
Meanwhile Slovenia’s Spela Ponomarenko Janic is hoping to get to a fifth Olympics this year. Her K2 partner, Ana Steblaj, is aiming for her first Games.
In C2 500 qualifiers eight countries will race off in the men’s, while four crews will fight for the quota in the women’s.
What the men’s race lacks in numbers is made up for in the quality of the countries competing, with Poland, Moldova and Ukraine among the starters.
In the women’s C2 Olympic host nation France will line up alongside crews from Czechia, Portugal and a neutral athletes crew.
Full coverage of Wednesday’s European Olympic qualifiers can be viewed on the ICF’s Premium YouTube channel. There will be coverage all week from the Olympic qualifiers, the 2024 ICF Paracanoe World Championships and Paralympic qualifiers, and the ICF Sprint World Cup.
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You can find all the event details, including preliminary schedules and start lists, on our official event webpages.
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