Exciting plans are in place in Portugal to develop kayak cross after paddlers made a splash in the country’s first demonstration of the new Olympic event.
The Portuguese Canoe Federation’s new Board of Directors has agreed to start kayak cross in Portugal with a view to holding its first National Championships in the event this year.
The decision to commit to the development of kayak cross comes after the event made its Olympic debut as part of the Canoe Slalom programme at Paris 2024.
A demonstration of kayak cross was run by the Portuguese Canoe Federation for the first time on January 26 with participants coming from Portugal and Spain.
A total of 50 paddlers, including juniors, seniors and masters, took part in the event that was staged on the Paiva River in the stunning city of Arouca.
Portuguese national slalom team members like Frederico Alvarenga and Joao Cunha were among those to tackle the kayak cross course.
Battling it out in heavy rain, the finals were held in spectacular river conditions as Marta Noval and Alvarenga won the respective women’s and men’s kayak cross titles.
Marcos Oliveira, General Secretary of the Portuguese Canoe Federation, said the demonstration was an important step in the development of kayak cross across the country.
“The Board recognises the importance of kayak cross due to it being an Olympic event and Portugal competing in it for the past years,” said Oliveira.
“The goal is to improve the international participation and to reach what we need to implement it in our clubs and in the federation calendar as a national title.
“The demonstration event was a very important start as it pushed us to find solutions for the course, developing in-house hardware for the gates, the timing and scoring software and build a national rule book.
"Doing it in the capital of whitewater in Portugal – Arouca and Paiva River – is also a very important achievement.
“It is our goal is to attract those that are paddling on the Paiva River every weekend and make them learn about this discipline, its rules and still have fun as they used to being outside the NF and the real competitions.”
Amarante city and Tamega River is poised to host Portugal’s first National Championships in kayak cross on March 22 and 23.
“At the moment, the plan is to make clubs add kayak cross to slalom in the daily training and invest in proper kayak cross boats,” added Oliveira.
“We believe the National Championships will create this path of investment.
“Last weekend we saw many athletes motivated by doing something other than a slalom course and competition.
“It's new and energetic for all.”
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