Every reigning canoe slalom Olympic and World Champion will line up this weekend in the opening International Canoe Federation World Cup in Augsburg, Germany.
This weekend’s slalom and kayak cross world cup kicks off a busy season for the best paddlers on the planet, culminating in the 2023 ICF World Championships and Olympic selections at Lee Valley in London in September.
Among those lining up this weekend will be the Czech Republic’s Jiri Prskavec, the reigning men’s K1 Olympic champion who will also contest the men’s C1 on Saturday.
Many women do both the K1 and C1, but very few men attempt both. Only one male, Russia’s Pavel Eigel, attempted both in Tokyo but he withdrew after one run in the men’s C1. Prskavec came through a difficult qualifying campaign in the Czech Republic to earn his place on both teams.
Germany’s Ricarda Funk, who followed up her Olympic K1 gold in Tokyo with an emphatic win in front of her home crowd at last year’s world championships, will look to once again use her course knowledge to give her an edge over a strong women’s field.
In women’s C1, Australia’s Olympic gold medalist, Jessica Fox, and Germany’s reigning world champion, Andrea Herzog, will once again go head-to-head, while in men’s C1 Olympic champion Benjamin Savsek of Slovenia and German world champion Sideris Tasiadis are both entered.
The defending kayak cross world champions, Joe Clarke from Great Britain and Jessica Fox, are goth back in action. Kayak Cross will make its Olympic debut in Paris next year, so competition will be fierce this year ahead of Paris qualifiers in Prague early next year.
In a change of format this year, the canoe slalom and kayak cross world cups will be held over four days, with the first medals, the men’s and women’s K1, decided on Friday night. The men’s and women’s C1 semi-finals and finals will be decided on Saturday, with Sunday set aside for the kayak cross competition.
A total of 43 nations, representing every continent, have entered this weekend’s world cup. There are 240 athletes entered. The Czech Republic, Great Britain and Slovenia have the maximum number of athletes entered, while eight nations, including Serbia, Chile, Belgium and Greece have just one athlete.
The return to Augsburg comes just one year after the venue celebrated the 50th anniversary of the Olympic debut of canoe slalom at the Munich Olympics. The world cup begins on Thursday and runs through until Sunday.