Olympic and World Champions are expected to head a strong field of athletes competing in the season-opening sprint canoe World Cup at Montemor-o-Velho for the 1st ICF Canoe Sprint world Cup 2017.

New Zealand's Lisa Carrington and Germany's Sebastian Brendel have already confirmed their attendance, and other big names are also expected to step out in the May 19 to 21 event.

All the major Portuguese and Spanish Olympic team will also join the list of competitors in this World Cup, that so far has a total of 18 countries expected to be competing in this first event of the 2020 new Olympic cycle.

Countries confirmed and expected to attend include CZE, MEX, LAT, UKR, HUN, GBR, NZL, FIN, BRA, STP, ESP, POL, CHN, SLO, RSA, GER, BUL, POR. 

There is much excitement also surrounding the appearance of current C1 women's 200 meters world champion, Staniliya Stamenova from Bulgaria, as we prepare for the introcuction of this event at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.

With still a lot of confirmations to be done and finally with the program of the world cups available and entries open at ICF online system, new numbers and names should be happening soon.