Blog posts
Canoe slalom now to Tokyo 2020
Well, that was fun. What’s next? For now, a look at the remaining 2016 World Cup series, 2017 World Championships and beyond.
The canoe slalom season for 2016 is not quite done yet. We have the ECA Junior & U23 European Championships in Solkan, Slovenia later this month. There are still two remaining races in the 2016 ICF World Cup series in September. Race 4 is in Prague and the final race is in Tacen, Slovakia.
The ICF will continue to bring you news through these races and I will be tweeting results through the World Cup races.
The World...Read more
Florence rules out retirement as partner Hounslow looks for silver lining
RIO DE JANEIRO - David FLORENCE (GBR) dismissed all talk of retirement after becoming the first canoe slalom paddler to win three Olympic Games silver medals on Thursday.
FLORENCE, 34, and Richard HOUNSLOW (GBR) repeated their second-place finish from the London 2012 Olympic Games as Slovak cousins Peter SKANTAR (SVK) and Ladislav SKANTAR (SVK) claimed gold in what could be the final running of the men's C2 event at an Olympics.
"I am still loving canoeing," FLORENCE said. "It's a shame that it looks likely C2 will be not with us in
...Read more
New Zealand sprint kayakers comfortable with Rio chop
It's caused havoc with the rowers but New Zealand's canoe sprinters aren't worried about the Rio de Janeiro weather ahead of their Olympic race campaign.
World champion Lisa Carrington and fellow K1 paddler Marty McDowell will hit the Rodrigo de Freitas lagoon first on Monday night (NZ time), followed by the women's K4 of Jaimee Lovett, Kayla Imrie, Aimee Fisher and Caitlin Ryan later in the week.
The lagoon has been the centre of mayhem in the rowing, with a number of crews sinking and the wind and chop causing two days of postponements and...Read more
Perseverance is key for Chourraut as Spain collects first K1 gold
RIO DE JANEIRO - Maialen CHOURRAUT (ESP) blew away the rest of the women's K1 field at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games to win the first canoe slalom gold medal for Spain on Thursday, 20 years and three Olympics after first taking up the sport.
CHOURRAUT showed all of her experience and stamina to clock a time more than three seconds quicker than Luuka JONES (NZL) in silver and the event favourite Jessica FOX (AUS) in bronze at the Whitewater Stadium.
"I have been working every day, taking it step-by-step to get to this point of winning the Olympic gold medal," the...Read more
Swashbuckling Czechs roll out of medal contention
For 22 gates the enthusiastic Rio crowd had whooped and hollered in appreciation as the Czech Republic C2 team of Marek Sindler and Jonas Kaspar sizzled down the course at breakneck speed.
All the time comparisons were looking good. Sindler and Kaspar were ahead of the clock, and looked certain to finish on the podium, possibly with a gold.
But then it all went badly wrong. Pivoting out of gate 22, and looking to snatch every available millisecond they could, the canoe went over. Upside down.
The crowd gasped, realising a likely medal had gone wanting.
I just can’t...Read more
Deodoro canoe slalom legacy
Here we explore what this Rio Olympic event has meant for canoe slalom in Brazil. I have been following the Brazilian team since London 2012.
In 2013, I described them as “young, highly passionate and motivated team who don’t give up”. The Brazilian team has advanced incredibly in the last few years. We have seen them in World Championship semi-finals, a final in C1W, and now an Olympic final, where Pedro Da Silva [aka Pepe Goncalves] finished 6th. It cannot be denied that their rise has been meteoric.
Even before the Games had begun, Goncalves had...Read more
