Discussions are underway to build the world's first ever freestyle kayaking stadium, in what would be a major breakthrough for the sport.
The breakthrough came at a meeting in Barcelona, Spain, involving the Mayor from Sort, the Catalan Minister of Sports, and the organising committee of the 2019 Freestyle World Championships. The meeting also included representatives from the Royal Spanish Federation, Catalan Federation, Ministry of Sports in the Catalan Government, as well as other departments of the Catalan and Spanish Governments and the ICF Freestyle Committee.
The result of this meeting is that Sort has set a goal to attempt to create the worlds first ever freestyle stadium in Sort, Spain.
The government will be working in conjunction with a whitewater designer and engineer to create this facility in time for the World Championships in 2019, with works to start very soon in November of this year.
Further to this, funding for this development project and the 'Freestyle Media Box' was accepted. The 'Freestyle Media Box' is a concept created by the ICF Freestyle Committee which will bring a level of standardisation to Freestyle World Championships, and allow the scoring system and the media production to be seamless for both freestyle World Cups and World Championships. A further announcement on this will be made soon.
The ICF Freestyle Committee is very excited at what Sort has discussed and proposed, constructing something that has never before been created and the first ever stadium specifically for freestyle kayaking. This truly showcases the progressive movement of freestyle kayaking, bringing it to the forefront of paddle sports and providing a legacy to the community for many decades to come.
The Mayor of Sort is reported as saying, "The Pyrenees is once again a reference point for watersports and kayaking. Both Sort and Seu have seen many visitors and already successfully hosted major International events both in Noguera Pallaresa and Parc del Segre.
"A lot of work has gone into securing the 2019 World Championships. We had to work together to be competitive and look forward to being able to draw the eyes of the world to our new fantastic facility."
