Moscow will this weekend host the third and final ICF Canoe Sprint World Cup of the season. All the action will take place on the Regatta Course from 1-3 June. The Krylatskoye Sport Centre is famed for staging the Canoeing events at the 1980 Moscow Olympic Games as well as the much heralded, ICF Junior Canoe Sprint World Championships and ECA Junior & U23 European Championships.

New features have been added to the Krylatskoye venue including a new finish-tower, boathouses, and a two way waterway that divides the island at the 650 and 1100 meter mark. This particular feature has been created for the convenience of athletes moving to the start line.

As the final event in the Canoe Sprint series and the event that precedes the European Championships in Zagreb, Croatia in June and the Olympic Games in July, Moscow is expected to be bustling with paddlers trying to get in some last minute competition to fine tune their preparations ahead of the Games.

Paddlers confirmed to compete represent all continents and include Angola, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Ecuador, Germany, Poland, Russia, Slovenia, South Korea, Germany and many more.

Canada’s Adam van Koeverden won a silver medal  for his performance in Duisburg, earning his second medal in as many World Cups this season in the K1 1000m race. Aleh Yurenia (BLR) won the gold medal, but he and his teammates will not be racing as Belarus is having their ,National Team selections this weekend.

Germany’s Sebastian Brendel will not be in Moscow this weekend to defend the C1 1000m gold medal he won in Duisburg, however his biggest challenger so far this season, Mark Oldershaw (CAN) will face equal pressure from home favourites Ilya Shtokalov and Viktor Melantyev who have both been posting great results this year.

Reigning Men’s K1 200m world champion Piotr Siemionowski (POL) has been out injured but is expected to compete for the first time this weekend, ironically Great Britain’s Ed McKeever, the winner of the World Cups I & II will not be competing in this final World Cup, making Siemionowski debut this season a little less intense.

Also competing this weekend are Jo Brigden-Jones, Rachel Lovell, Hannah Davis and Lyndsie Fogarty; the four will be representing Australia on the Women’s K4 500m start line at the Olympic Games, but this weekend their primary rivals will be the two local K4 teams.

The competition this weekend will be broadcast by ESPN (USA), Canal Plus (France) and SPORTSNET (Canada) amongst others. Please note that you can also watch the World Cup live this week end on the ICF video website: http://eurovision.digotel.com/icf/index.html

Find information, schedule and results on the official website of the Moscow World Cup: http://wc2012moscow.kayak-canoe.ru

Some information about the course.