Michael Noyelle | ICF - Many of the world’s best young paddlers began their journey to the top of the sport as the 2014 ICF Junior and U23 Canoe Sprint World Championship in Szeged, Hungary got underway in bright yet breezy conditions.

62 races across 10 categories were contested on the first day of action as the famous Szeged course, the home of Hungarian Canoe Sprint, again provided a truly world-class setting for spectators and competitors alike.

With the possibility of qualifying for the finals, which will be contested over the weekend, the action was fast a furious. First to reach the finals was the K4 Junior Women crew from Poland. However, the most eagerly anticipated performer of the day was Hungary’s Bence Dombvari.

Local Hero

The talented 21-year-old has a big following in Hungary, and announced himself on the senior international stage earlier this year by convincingly winning the K1 Men 500m gold in Milan, Italy at the first ICF Canoe Sprint World Cup of the season. 

Today, Dombvari again delivered, cruising through his heat and subsequent semifinal comfortably.

Talking after the semifinals the Hungarian said, “I am happy with my race, the goal was to paddle sub 3:30, I did 3:28:35 so that’s a satisfying."

“Today was really hard because we had a tailwind and not everyone likes it. We are actually paddling faster, we need to use a different technique. It’s tricky. It is the first time I experience this in Szeged, or in Hungary. We did not have these conditions for our national trials."

"I hope for the final we won’t have this kind of wind. I like the headwind better because it helps breathing and I find it more motivating, we’re cooler and have more oxygen."

Only two other competitors bettered the Hungarian’s time ahead of Saturday’s final. They were Australia’s Jordan Woods, a blisteringly quick 19-year-old who stopped the clock at 3:25.53, and Spain’s Javier Cabañín who crossed the line in 3:27.43.

Acutely aware of his competition, Dombvari continued, “My main opponent here is the Australian, Jordan Wood. He is two years younger than me and he now trains with Anders Gustafsson, no need to say who he is… I really hope I can beat him in the final."

Referring to a troubled preparation coming into his home event, Dombvari said, "I have been sick for one month and started training again mid-June only. My goal for the season is to give 100%, meaning win here and go to Moscow for the World Championships to do something good."

"But these championships are more than a repetition because paddling at home for Hungarians is something very special. We love our sport, we love our country and we want to please our fan clubs, our supporters and to make our sport more famous and popular."

Aware of required improvements

Elsewhere, Fabian Dittrich (GER) looked to continue his rise to prominence in the C1 Men 1000m and improve on his fifth place at Junior European Championships in France earlier this year.

"I had a pretty good day. My semifinal was good, I am satisfied to have a good lane for the final,” said the young German.

"My main goal here is to stay in the world top five after finishing fifth in the Europeans last week in Branderburg. I’m in my second Junior year, but this is my first Junior World Championships.

As with many of the young athletes Dittrich is confident in his own abilities but also aware of what he needs to improve. "The boats in front of me are not that far away. I need to work on my start and to get stronger."

The Romanian, Leonid Valentin Carp was the fastest qualifier and as such takes the favoured lane six in Saturday's C1 Junior Men 1000m final.

Fastest Qualifiers

With 10 categories reaching the finals, China and Belgium were the two-standout nations amongst usual suspects.

C1M JUNIOR 1000m
Leonid Valentin Carp (ROU) 3:54.186

K1M U23 Men 1000m
Jordan Woods (AUS) 3:25.53

K4W JUNIOR 500m
Noémi Lucz, Zita Jankó, Dóra Sólyom, Cintia Papp (HUN) 1.35.084

K4W U23 500m
Wenjun Ren, Qing Ma, Jieyi Huang, Xue Li (CHN)        1.31.940

K1M JUNIOR 500m
Artuur PETERS (BEL) 3.30.263

C1M U23 1000m
Oleg Tarnovskyi (MDA) 3.52.393

K2M JUNIOR 1000m
Max Lemke, Marc Poth (GER) 3.14.482   

C2M JUNIOR 1000m
Dmitrii Sharov, Iliya Isaev (RUS) 3.42.081

K2M U23 1000m
Benjámin Ceiner, Tibor Hufnágel (HUN) 3.10.642

C2M U23 1000m
Michal Kudla, Mateusz Kaminski (POL) 3.34.614

Live stream - Click Here

Complete results - Click Here

Event website - http://szeged2014.com