European champions are set to be crowned across the Canoe Sprint, Paracanoe and Stand Up Paddling disciplines in Szeged.
The Hungarian city will stage the European Canoe Association (ECA) Canoe Sprint, Paracanoe and SUP European Championships from June 12 to 16.
It will turn into the Canoe Sprint capital for the second time this year having hosted the European Olympic qualifier as well as the first International Canoe Federation Canoe Sprint World Cup of the season in May.
This will be the first-ever SUP European Championships under the auspices of the ECA.
It will be the 22nd edition of Canoe Sprint European Championships under the ECA umbrella in addition to the 2022 Multisport European Championships and three editions of the European Games.
Athletes from 36 countries will compete in the Canoe Sprint part of the European Championships.
Hungary's Tamara Csipes will compete in three Olympic events at the last major international competition before the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
The two-time Olympic champion will line up in the women's K1 500, women's K2 500 and women's K4 500.
The Hungarian team also features fellow Olympic gold medallists Balint Kopasz and Sandor Totka.
There will also be representatives from 17 countries in the Paracanoe events and 21 nations will be represented in SUP European Championships.
The programme will comprise of both Olympic and non-Olympic Canoe Sprint events as well as Paracanoe races and SUP inflatable, long distance, sprint and technical contests.
The championships will begin tomorrow with SUP races.
In the morning, the first stages of the technical race are on the agenda and in the afternoon the SUP sprint heats, quarter-finals and semi-finals will follow.
On Thursday, men’s K4 500 heats will open the Canoe Sprint programme, followed by 1000, 200 and 500 heats. The first Paracanoe events are also scheduled for Thursday, as well as SUP long distance races.
Friday will start with semi-finals in Canoe Sprint, and the first sets of medals in Canoe Sprint and Paracanoe will be awarded in the afternoon.
There will be eight Canoe Sprint A finals, two Paracanoe finals as well as SUP sprint finals A.
Saturday will start with Paracanoe finals and continue with 200, 500 and 1000 finals.
SUP technical race finals and inflatable race finals will also feature on Saturday as well as more 1000, 500 and 200 A finals.
The championships will conclude on Sunday with the staging of the remaining 200, 500 and 1000 Canoe Sprint finals, and in the last part of the competition also the 5000 events.
During the championships, the organisers also included into the programme other events, such as KT-1 and KT-2 Special Olympics, and MK4 events for girls and boys and MC4 mixed races.
"We organise many international events every year, so the competition itself is nothing new from the organisational side, but it should definitely be emphasized that we will be the first to host three disciplines at the same time," said Bálint Szakacs, Chair of the Host Organising Committee.
“On behalf of the Hungarian Canoe Federation, we initiated several years ago to the International Canoe Federation and the European Canoe Federation that we would organise international competitions combining several disciplines.
“The European alliance was open to this and saw an opportunity.
“On the one hand, to merge three disciplines and to add SUP as an emerging discipline with Olympic chances to the sprint and para programme."
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