More than 20 young athletes from throughout the world are taking part in a canoe sprint development camp in Barcelona to help their preparation for a future Olympic qualification.

The two week camp at the Castelldefels course, site of the canoe sprint competition at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, has been generously supported by the Chinese Canoe Federation, the Chinese Olympic Committee and Spanish

The athletes from Greece, Romania, Ukraine, Spain, Paraguay and Austria have been provided with equipment donated by leading kayak manufacturer Nelo. The camp is designed to improve the technical and physical skills of the athletes, with a view to their possible qualification for the LA 2028 Olympics and beyond.

“This camp will help a lot and contribute to develop the athletes on many aspects, but the biggest target is provide information and training to improve their technical skills so they can use these tools to gain quality and efficiency of their stroke,” ICF coach Nichita Sergan said.

ICF Vice President Cecilia Farías, responsible for the Sustainable Development Programme, the ICF Talent Identification Programme will provide exceptional opportunities this year to talented athletes invited to nine camps from countries around the world.

"This TIP camp is being run in Barcelona thanks to the generosity of our Chinese colleagues, with special thanks to Dr. Liu Aijie (ICF Vice-President) and the Royal Spanish Canoe Federation,"Ms Farias said.

"Ivrea (ITA), Halifax (CAN) Augsburg (GER) and Szeged (HUN) will receive a total 122 athletes, plus 20 coaches, with the mission to reproduce the TIP teachings back home.

Wildwater, freestyle, marathon and ocean racing have gradually been included into this successful program, which not only provides training and technical opportunities, but an education package which addresses anti-doping, safeguarding, sustainability, nutrition and other important topics to help form talented athletes.

"The participating national federations must comply with the gender equality principle by submitting equal number of female and male athletes, and the ICF makes a careful follow-up on the career progress of the talented athletes, with the vision of having podium appearances of athletes representing the wide-ranging diversity of our planetcanoe.”

Ukraine athlete Kateryna Chabaniuk said the camp was already providing benefits.

“The good impact of this camp is the possibility to experiment and interact with other cultures and go out of our preparation system and see other ways to achieve the same goals,” she said.

The Chinese Canoe Federation is a major supporter of the camp, covering the accommodation and meals of all the participants, while the ICF is funding local transportation, coaches and event running costs.

The ICF is grateful to the support of ICF vice-president Liu Aije, the Chinese Olympic Committee and Chinese Canoe Federation, and to Anna Caula from Spain’s SGEAF and Eduard Suarez from the Canal Olimpic de Catalunya.

Barcelona training camp sprint 2022

Canoe Sprint
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