Slalom World Cup 2017 Stage #1 – Prague (Czech Rep.)
By: Nico Scianimanico.
The 2017 ICF Slalom World Cup circuit kicks off this week in Prague. After the European Championships last week in Slovenia, this is the first world-class slalom race since the 2016 Rio Olympics. Every athlete will be eager to start strongly this new Olympic cycle.
The Troja race course donwtown Prague ©Jan Homolek/kayaksession.com
Who better than the Czech to host the first WC of the season? Prague’s public is known around the world to be one of the warmest, they will cheer their typical local champions Vávra Hradilek and Jiří Prskavec as well as all competitors and it is always a great pleasure for our slalom athletes to be gathered here. The really experienced organisation will create for sure a great event.
The Czech fans are the warmest on the circuit. They also know kayaking very well. ©Martin_Kozák/kayaksession.com
It will also be the second edition of the Extreme Canoe Slalom Cross: 4 paddlers race down the course together. The finals will take place on Saturday afternoon.
The Euros in Tacen (Slovenia) at the beginning of the month showed the best paddlers of the moment: Alex Slafkovsky in C1 who won his second European title in a row, Picco-Biso the French C2 crew won in individual and in team. Austrian Corina Kuhnle imposed herself as the kayak queen of Tacen where she had won the world championships back in 2010. In C1 women, the new Olympic category, Kimberley Woods who won her second European title will have to fight against Jessica Fox, the Australian double world champion. In K1 men, Mateusz Polaczyk is the new European Champion. As the whole Polish team, he showed great performance. We also expect the locals and the Olympic medallist to fight hard!
©Adam_Svoboda/kayaksession.com
New feature for this race: the non-stop session. On Thursday, all the athletes will have the opportunity of paddling on the heats course.
Friday morning the heats begin, all competitors will have two chances to qualify for the semi-finals. On Saturday the Canoe Double men (C2M), Canoe Single Women (C1W) and Kayak Single men (K1M) will do their final phases while the other categories: Canoe double mixt (C2Mx), Kayak Single Women (K1W) and Canoe Single Men (C1M) will race their finals on Sunday
It will also be the second edition of the Extreme Canoe Slalom Cross: likewise the Skiing Boarder Cross, 4 paddlers race down the course together. The CSCX final will take place on Saturday afternoon.
Local superstar Vavra Hradilek did not make the team for the world championships this year, but can compete in the World Cup series. he will without a doubt want to remind everyone how it is done on the Troja Course where he took the world title a few years ago. ©Homolka
New feature for this race: the non-stop session. On Thursday, all the athletes will have the opportunity of paddling on the heats course. This practice had been abandoned for the past 30 years and they athletes will have to make the most of that run to gain competitive advantage and/or try options. Will the paddlers go harder and take more risks on the heats?
More soon…
By: Nico Scianimanico.
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