ICF Wildwater Canoeing Committee activities

Season comes to a close 

As the long 2024 season for wildwater racing comes to an end, preparations for the upcoming season have been in full swing for several months. 

Following the successful completion of the last international wildwater race in Europe in mid-November in Llangollen, UK, the first national team qualifications are already scheduled for mid-January in Australia on the Mersey River. Notably, the Mersey River hosted several World Cup races back in 2009. 

The race in Llangollen once again highlighted how dependent our discipline is on the weather conditions. Due to prolonged rainfall and the resulting rapidly rising water levels, the sprint race had to be abruptly cancelled after only the first run, which barely managed to proceed and be counted. Similarly, the classic race could not be held on the originally designated course because of the high water levels. These challenges underscored the adaptability required in wildwater racing and the importance of contingency planning in such dynamic conditions.  

New committee 

At the beginning of November, Manuela Gawehn was re-elected as Chair of the ICF Wildwater Canoeing Committee at the ICF Congress in Antalya, Turkiye. The ICF Board of Directors then appointed the new Wildwater Committee. The newly formed committee consists of Annalena Kuttenberger of Switzerland, German Jimenez Prats of Spain, Giulia Formenton of Italy, Alexandra Plachtova of Czechia and the advisors Rafael Girotto of Brazil, Tim Novak of Slovenia and Peter Schofield of Great Britain - immediately distributed their tasks among themselves in a first meeting. Here is an overview. Planning has also already begun for a Nations Meeting at the start of the season at the beginning of January. 

World Cups in 2025 

The ICF Board of Directors unanimously approved our bids from Skopje, North Macedonia and Banja Luka, Bosnia and Herzegovina to host the Wildwater Canoeing World Cup events next year. Skopje is scheduled to hold two World Cups in sprint from April 9 to 11, while Banja Luka is due to host World Cups in classic, sprint and mass start from July 10 to 12. 

Several online meetings have already taken place with the organisers of the whitewater events planned for 2025. A detailed schedule is currently being drawn up with the World Rafting Federation (WRF) for the Junior and U23 World Championships in Solkan, Slovenia, which we will organise together with the WRF Junior and U23 World Championships.  

The development team is working on the 2025 strategy and our new rules were already been implemented in our online assessment tools for ITO's training. 

By Manuela Gawehn, Chair of the ICF Wildwater Canoeing Committee