This week the season of European Championships in canoeing kicks off with the 2017 ECA Wildwater Canoeing European Championships in Skopje, Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.

Competitors will fight for the medals between Thursday and Sunday on two rivers. Classic events will be held in the city centre of Skopje on the Vardar River, while sprint events will take place in a picturesque Matka Canyon on the River Treska.

Representatives from the host nation as well as from Germany, France, Italy, Czech Republic, Slovenia, Great Britain, Croatia, Switzerland, Slovakia, Austria, Belgium, Netherlands, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia and Hungary are expected to start at the 2017 ECA Wildwater Canoeing European Championships.

Among the participants will be the majority of the defending champions and medallists from the previous ECA Wildwater Canoeing European Championships in Banja Luka in 2015 – Andreas Heilinger, Nejc Žnidarčič, Normen Weber, and also Matej Benuš, the Slovakian canoeist who won a silver medal in canoe slalom event last year at the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.

The organising team is satisfied with the work they have done in preparation of one of the biggest canoeing events in this country. Skopje recently hosted ECA Junior and U23 Canoe Slalom European Championships and in the past decade senior ECA Canoe Slalom European Championships as well.

They are grateful both to the government as well as the city of Skopje for their support in preparations of the event. President of the country Gjorge Ivanov is also Honorary president of the organising committee. Following some political unrest in Skopje in previous weeks the organising team has been reassured there are no major incidents anticipated during the competitions days, so everything should go according to plans.

“We expect to organise a good event which is very important for the development of this sport in our country and in the Balkans," Atanas Nikolovski, the sports director of the Federation and event technical organiser, said.

"The wildwater canoeing in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia rose to a higher level two years ago thanks to the team which was built within our federation and thanks to Ljubomir Spasikj, who is our best wildwater paddler.

"I expect even a higher level of our sport after the championships and I hope we will attract more children to this sport. Canoe Federation of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia has organised many canoeing competitions, which brought also tourists to our country and Skopje.

"And this is also one of our goals – promotion of the country.”

Opening ceremony of the championships will be organised on Wednesday, May 10. The first medals will be awarded on Thursday when competitors will fight for individual European Champion titles in classic wildwater canoeing event.

A day later team events in classic race will take place. On Saturday and Sunday the competition will move from the city centre to the Matka Canyon for the sprint events (individual events on Saturday and team events on Sunday).

The official event website: http://www.eca2017-ww.canoe.mk/ Results will be published on the official event website as well as on the website: www.timingsolution.mk