Hungary, considered by many to be the unofficial world home of canoe sprint, will later this year host the 2018 FISU World University Canoe Sprint Championships in Szolnok, Hungary.
The organising committee believes the August 10-12th event will be memorable for athletes, officials and spectators.
Competition will be held on the Tisza River, about two kilometres south of Szolnok. There will be men’s 200, 500 and 1000 metre races in K1, K2, K4, C1, C2 and C4 boats.
Women will contest 200 and 500 metre races in C1 and C2, as well as K1, K2 and K4.
The World University Championships began in 1963, a single-sport competition held every two years around the world. This year there will be 34 stand-alone World University Championships, including canoe sprint in Szolnok.
Canoe sprint made its World University Championships debut in 1998 in Zagreb, Croatia, and has been at every Championships since 2008, when the event was held in Belgrade.
In 1998 the Hungarian team took six medals, five silver and one bronze, ranking first in the number of medals taken, ahead of Poland and Romania.
The second edition of the World University Championship was held in Bari, Italy, with sixteen countries and 125 male and 35 female athletes taking part.
After a short hiatus, canoe sprint returned to the program in 2008 in Belgrade with a record number of countries competing, a record that was matched two years later in Poznan, Poland, with 23 participating countries and 190 competitors.
