Guy Dresser | Royal Canoe Club - Fancy racing on a tiny city centre stretch of water in Paris, London, Berlin or some other high profile location? Well you should do, according to the German Canoe Federation.

It’s raised the prospect of an international city-based 200m canoe sprint series as part of a bid to spice up the sport and make it more dynamic and appealing for the general public and TV audiences.

The Federation’s thoughts come in an interesting piece in the influential German broadsheet newspaper, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, in which the prospects for the sport, which saw much German success at last week’s World Championships, are discussed.

Duisburg, five-time host of the Worlds remains a great location for the sport. It even enjoyed the singular praise of the ICF, whose President described it at the end of last week’s Championships as the “Wimbledon of canoeing.”

Just the same, the Germans think they need to find other locations to take the sport to the masses and make it even more attractive to the public.

Jens Kahl, sports director of the German Canoe Federation told the FAZ that City harbours, small lakes, any high profile locations not used to staging regattas should all be considered.

“In tennis, there are also beautiful tournaments away from Wimbledon,” he observed drily.

Although crowds flocked to Duisburg in its thousands to watch home heroes Max Hoff and Sebastian Brendel, the Germans are as aware as any nation of how perilously close canoeing came to being ejected from the Olympic programme last year.

And the pressure is on to find ways of enlivening the sport. Kahl told the FAZ he isn’t happy with the status quo. Despite Germany’s huge success in sprint canoeing, the writing  is on the wall if the sport doesn’t change, he said, adding: “We are the only international organization in the summer Olympic sport, which does not have a [major] sponsor and it’s because we do not have a television product.”

Kahl sits on the ICF’s technical commission, which is looking into the future of the sport.

He doesn’t seem to think getting more women into the sport is the way forward, as some suggest. Pushing the cause of women even when there aren’t enough teams putting female competitors forward will not cut the mustard, he suggested.

This isn’t to suggest Kahl is not standing in the way of progress. Things have to change, he admitted, but introducing a women’s event with fewer than 30 countries doing it is not one of them.

“We’ve got to get the sport out there to the public, stage it just two metres from them and let them see it close up. A City-centre series – now that would be really attractive,” he declared.