Heavy upstream rain has thrown a curve-ball for organisers of this weekend’s International Canoe Federation Canoe Slalom World Cup in Prague.

The Troja river has reached heights which has made the usual slalom course unrecognizable. As a result, organisers have scrapped Thursday’s competition, and will abbreviate the kayak and canoe competitions.

On Friday there will only be one heat of the men’s and women’s kayak, with the top ten in each heat qualifying directly for the final. It will be the same format for the canoe on Saturday.

The kayak cross competition on Sunday, which also doubles as the final Olympic qualifier, will be run as usual, but will also introduce a repechage round. It will be a similar format when kayak cross makes its Olympic debut in Paris.

Brazil’s three-time Olympian, Ana Satila, said the shortened format will make racing more challenging.

“You only have one run to do, and you need to do it at the time,” Satila said.

“The big difference is we don’t have that warm-up that we normally have, and for that is really important’

“Unfortunately this is the first time we have seen the water like this during a race preparation, but of course it is hard for everybody. We don’t have the last part of the course, so we can’t train these.”

A total of 45 nations representing every continent have entered this week’s world cup. Paris bound athletes from Czechia, Spain and Slovakia, who sat out last weekend’s season opener in Augsburg, will be back in action this weekend.

Czech Olympic champion Jiri Prskavec and Spanish Olympic champion Maialen Chourraut will both line up for their first world cup of the year.

Athletes from 38 nations will be competing in the kayak cross in Prague. There will be three Olympic quotas up for grabs in both the men’s and women’s events, and only athletes who have not yet earned their country an Olympic quota will be eligible to compete.

The kayak cross Olympic qualifiers will be held on Sunday afternoon.

Live Coverage

Due to the change in schedule and competition format which affects the TV distribution, it will not be possible to livestream the entire event. The top 20 ranked athletes in men's and women's for the heats, the last 20 to race, will be streamed along with the finals. A recording of all heats will be uploaded afterwards.

7 June - Kayak

• Heats POST COMPETITION
• Heats Top 20 LIVE
  15:00–16:30
• Finals LIVE
  16:45–18:05

8 June - Canoe

• Heats POST COMPETITION
• Heats Top 20 LIVE
  9:35–11:10
• Finals LIVE
  11:30 12:50

9 June - Kayak Cross

• Round 1 & Heats LIVE
  8:55–14:20
• Finals LIVE
  14:30–16:00