Canoeing continues to develop all over the world, with talent camps being held in Europe, Asia and South America in the past month attracting new athletes and introducing more people to the sport.

A talent identification program in Skopje, Macedonia, attracted ten athletes from six different countries ahead of the IKAS Open slalom event and European white water sprint cup. Over seven days of training and competition coaches reported a major improvement in the eight male and two female athletes.

The camp focussed on both canoe slalom and white water paddling and was run in cooperation with the European Canoe Association development program. The camp has been run for the past four years and its focus on two disciplines makes it somewhat unique.

The athletes came from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia, Bulgaria, Norway, Greece and Lithuania, and for many it was their first ICF development training camp.

Experienced coaches Ognen Brazanski and Atanas Nikolovsky acknowledged the course would be difficult for many of the paddlers, but were thrilled with the progress of all the athletes over the week-long camp.

The athlete had access to the course twice a day, and also spent time on flatwater learning basic technique.

The success of the camp was underlined by the results during competition, with Macedonia’s Angeles Petrushev winning canoe slalom gold and Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Dusan Makcic winning silver in the white water sprint European Cup.