Article from DKV | Translation to English: Ulla Fischer | Proofreader: Katie Ellis - After seven years, the German championships returned to the race course in Allermöhe, the thirteenth time these championships have been held in Hamburg (19-24 August).

This will be the second water sports highlight of the year in Hamburg, after the junior rowing world cup was held here. Nevertheless, in only five days’ time, the stands for spectators, the race course, the campsite and the technology needs to be adapted to the needs of canoeists. “This is a big challenge for our volunteers in such a short amount of time, but luckily we can reuse some of the rowers’ infrastructure. Otherwise all this would not be possible”, said the manager of the race course Karl- Uwe Ebert.

World and Olympic champions in Hamburg
Almost all members of the national team travelled directly from the World cup in Moscow to Hamburg. Amongst them, the double world champion Sebastian Brendel, who will also paddle  C1 at the German championships. Additionally, the silver medallists in K2; Ronald Rauhe und Tom Liebscher, for the men and Franziska Weber und Tina Dietze (Olympic champions from London), for the women, will race in Hamburg.

In addition, a promising young trio from Hamburg, consisting of Deike Clasen, Meghan Jaedicke und Jakob Thordsen who have proven their talent on previous occasions, will be competing at these German championships.

Para canoe
At canoe sprint events handicapped sportsmen and women take part in the regular races, competing in three handicap categories. Over the past few years, this sport has undergone a rapid development at both national and international level. During the German championships in Hamburg, entries are high for races in all handicap classes. At the event there will be para canoe athletes like Ivo Kilian und Stefan Deuschel, who have already gained international experience competing for the top places.

High number of entries requires great organisation
With 1100 athletes registering for the event and 2219 single applications, the number of entries this year is the highest in recent years. “We had to reorganise the programme in order to fit in all 440 races. We have ended up with a race starting every four to five minutes”, reports race director Frank Niss. In order to accommodate all athletes, trainers and supervisors, we will provide a campsite of over 26,000 square metres.

Event website: www.kanu-dm.de