A large cluster of the biggest stars in Canoe Sprint including reigning Olympic and world champions are ready to start their season in style in Szeged.
The Hungarian city’s Maty-er will provide the perfect stage for the opening International Canoe Federation Canoe Sprint World Cup of the season.
A total of 547 athletes from 44 nations are set to compete across the canoe and kayak events in single, double and four-person boats.
Click here for live results from Szeged
Among those include Czech stars Josef Dostal and Martin Fuksa who will both be looking to pick up from where they left off.
Dostal enjoyed an unforgettable 2024, capturing the men’s K1 1000m crown at the Olympic Games in Paris before backing that up two weeks later with men’s K1 500m gold at the ICF Canoe Sprint World Championships in Samarkand.
Fuksa also had a stellar year as he secured the Olympic title in the men’s C1 1000m and picked up a world silver in the men’s C1 500m.
Other Paris 2024 gold medallists in action in Szeged are Canada’s Katie Vincent, China’s Mengya Sun, Germany’s Max Rendschmidt, Tom Liebscher-Lucz, Max Lemke and Jacob Schopf and three of New Zealand’s triumphant female quartet.
There is no eight-time Olympic champion Lisa Carrington, who led New Zealand to a first-ever women’s K4 500m gold in Paris, after the kayaking great opted to skip the international season in 2025 in preparation for Los Angeles 2028.
But her team-mates Alicia Hoskin, Olivia Brett and Tara Vaughan will be in Szeged with Lucy Matehaere completing the four-person boat for the World Cup opener.
Although Rendschmidt, Liebscher-Lucz, Lemke and Schopf are all in Hungary, they will not compete in the men’s K4 500m together.
Instead, Rendschmidt and Liebscher-Lucz will link up with Jonas Draeger and Moritz Willi Florstedt, while Schopf and Lemke will focus on the men’s K2 500m – an event they are reigning Olympic champions in.
Sun has been utterly dominant in the women’s C2 500m alongside Shixiao Xu, winning back-to-back Olympic titles.
They struck gold together in the recent Asian Canoe Confederation Canoe Sprint Asian Championships but only Sun has arrived in Szeged.
Sun will compete in three events as she is set to line-up in the women’s C1 200m, combine with Yanan Ma in the women’s C2 500m and join forces with Ma, Shuqi Li and Lina Xue in the women’s C4 500m.
Vincent will look to seal top spot again in the women’s C1 200m after clinching gold at Paris 2024 and will aim to shine in the women’s C1 500m as well.
Home fans will also be hoping to have many reasons to cheer with 52 paddlers set to represent Hungary.
Among those includes Balint Kopasz, Adam Varga, Noemi Pupp, Sara Fojt and Bence Nadas who all picked up medals during Paris 2024.
Live coverage of the ICF Canoe Sprint World Cup in Szeged will be available to watch for signed-up members of the Planet Canoe YouTube channel.
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