The International Canoe Federation is pleased with the progress Canoe Slalom is making in the People's Republic of China following a recent visit to the Asian nation.
Jean-Michel Prono, Chair of the ICF Canoe Slalom Committee, spent a week in Nan’an in the Fujian province as part of a collaboration with the Chinese Canoe Association to improve the discipline.
It was his second visit to Nan’an in the space of eight months having made the trip last August to run a seminar for International Technical Officials and assess China’s competition management and venue improvement.
Prono returned to China at the end of last month when the Chinese Canoe Slalom Spring Championships was taking place which was the national selection race for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
“I was able to oversee the good progression being made with the venue setting,” said Prono.
“During my first visit I addressed a number of issues, including the gate setting and whether it was easy or not to organise a race.
“They took on board many of the remarks that I made.
“The venue setting was much better.
“Race management was the other focus.
“China is a country with big numbers so it is easy to organise events with a great number of officials and volunteers.
“But if they want to organise more often, they will need to reduce these numbers to assess the different functional areas they organise around the event.”
While China has experienced Canoe Sprint success on the Olympic stage with three golds and two silvers, the nation has never won a medal in Canoe Slalom at the Games and has achieved only one podium spot in the history of the World Championships.
Juang Huang has high hopes of winning a medal at Paris 2024 after qualifying for the women’s C1 courtesy of her victory in Nan’an.
Prono says he has been encouraged by the work being done by the Chinese Canoe Association to support the growth of Canoe Slalom.
“It's a learning process for them,” added Prono.
“They have been developing the discipline for more than 20 years but they still need to catch up with what is the international standard to grow the activity.
“My main advice to them is to make event organisation simpler, robust and multiply the opportunities for their athletes to compete nationally and internationally.
“I have a good working relationship with the leadership in the Chinese Canoe Association and they trust me to help things move forward.
“When I did the seminar with 25 officials last August, most of them went through the examination successfully.
“This time, I had the opportunity to see them again on a practical component of the certification in the qualification and they are working well.”
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