From sitting in a slalom boat for the first time to paddling for Uganda on the big stage, it has been a week to remember for Martha Biyinzika.
The 17-year-old paddler was one of 14 athletes from eight nations that participated at a development camp run by the International Canoe Federation in Foix, France.
Starting on June 30, the camp has been running alongside the ICF Junior and U23 Canoe Slalom World Championships which concludes today.
Living in the Jinja district of Uganda, Biyinzika had never got into a slalom boat before let alone paddled in one.
But Biyinzika overcame her nerves to compete in the women’s U23 category in kayak and kayak cross at the World Championships in Foix.
Biyinzika thanked her coach Sofia Reinoso, the two-time Olympian from Mexico, for helping her to settle on the French waters.
“It’s so cool, especially to have such a good coach like Sofia,” said Biyinzika.
“She taught me how to use the slalom and kayak cross boats and how to paddle through the gates, so this is cool.
“Back home in Uganda, we don’t have these boats for slalom and kayak cross.
At first, I was nervous as I had not sat in a slalom boat before and it was difficult but after I got some experience and balance I was okay.
“I was a bit uncomfortable because that boat is so long and I had never sat in a long boat before.
“It took only two days to get used to it.”
Biyinzika has only been paddling for two years and now hopes to inspire other Ugandans to take to the water.
“In Uganda, we don’t have slalom boats, we just have freestyle boats that are shorter,” said Biyinzika.
“We have some big rapids in Uganda.
“I was the first person from Uganda to do slalom.
“I hope we will start to have slalom competitions in Uganda.
“I feel so proud and happy that I am representing my country here.
“It’s going to help me to teach my friends how to do some kayaking and hopefully develop some talents in slalom.”
Biyinzika is on the Talent Identification Programme (TIP) with the likes of Turkiye’s Mustafa Parlak and Ceren Avcu, Chile’s Geral Soto and Florencia Aquirre, Peru’s Juan Carrasco and Mia Berrio, Mexico’s Fernando Reinoso, South Africa’s Hannah Trower and Scott Venniker and Ecuador’s Rafa Sanchez and Maximo Rivadeneyre.
There is also representation from India with Shika Chouhan and Pradhyumna Singh Rathod participating.
It’s a fourth TIP camp for India’s 20-year-old Rathod, nicknamed “Prince”, who also paid tribute to all the coaches for assisting in his development.
“It’s always a nice experience getting to know people from other parts of the world,” said Prince.
“For countries that don’t have an artificial course yet, we gained the knowledge from the coaches teaching us.
“When we go back to our countries, we can tell the people that there are ways that we can learn.
“When it was my first race in Ivrea in 2022, it was really hard to paddle down the course.
“Now I almost made the semi-final split time.
“The development has been huge, and the TIP has played a massive role in that.”
Ettore Brigo is leading the camp with the support of coaches Sofia Reinoso of Mexico, Kilian Foulon of France, Alexandr Kulikov of Kazakhstan, Jasmine Royle of Great Britain and Andraz Echeverria Olguin of Chile.
“It was great because the athletes want to learn,” said Brigo.
“They were making some mistakes at the beginning but with the help of the coaches they managed to fix them.
“I could see the happiness in their eyes and on their faces.
“There were very different goals for each of the athletes and most of those goals were achieved, especially for those paddlers that were not as strong as the others.
“These achievements have been possible because athletes were happy to learn and be proactive.
“The coaches were also very good as they taught them a lot of things with passion.
“I am very happy with the full group and the camp.”
Related links
