Michele Eray | Sportscene - The Canoe Sprint world is flying into the 2nd year of the Olympic cycle, and with only a year to go until the first round of Olympic qualifications, 2014 should be a pretty exciting season.

The World Cups kick off in Milan, Italy on May 2nd, before moving to Racice, Czech from May 16-18th and then onto Szeged, Hungary the following weekend. Three beautiful venues, and three opportunities to prepare for the World Championships in Moscow, come August 6th.

In the men’s Olympic 1000m distance, all eyes will be on last year’s World Champion Max Hoff (GER), to see if he can hold off all the big names of the 1000m K1, including the ever-present Ken Wallace (AUS), Rene Poulsen (DEN), Dombvarrri (HUN) and others. At the World Championships in Duisburg last year, Belarus’s Aleh Yurenia raced in the team boats, and it will be interesting to see if he races the K1 events in 2014. The same can be said for Canada’s Adam van Koeverden, who took a break from his K1 and raced the K2 with Brady Reardon.

The men’s K2 1000m, traditionally dominated by the European’s, had only one Southern Hemisphere team in the final, with Australian Murray Stewart and Jacob Clear racing to a 5th place. Both of these guys are a part of the London Gold Medal winning K4, and the crew that shared the podium in Duisburg behind the Russian and Czech crews. With less than 5 seconds separating all 9 boats in the final, staying on top of this event is a challenging task, and the world will be watching the World Cups to see who has done their homework over the base season.

In the women’s kayak, the versatile Lisa Carrington (NZL) proved last year that she could go “long” and added to her Gold in the 200m with a bronze in the 500m event. It is going to take a lot to de-throne the current Olympic and World Champion over 500m, Hungary’s Danuta Kozak. There are many women throwing their hat into the ring though, including one of the sport’s greatest athletes, four-time Olympic champion Katrin Wagner-Augustin. 2014 will be her 21st year of racing for the German National Team, and she is looking to add to her 28 ICF World Championship medals. Katrin: "Canoeing is like an addiction, you just can’t stop".

In the women’s team boat events, the power struggle always seems to be among the triangle of Hungary-Germany-Poland, with the Hungarian Olympic Gold Medalists managing to hold off the Germans to take the gold at World Champs last year. However there seems to be a new challenger in Belarus. They upstaged the Polish in Duisburg and were only 0.1 seconds off the Germans. Adding to the interest, the Hungarians will definitely be making some changes to their crew as 2 members are expecting their first children.

In the K2, the powerful German crew of held off double Olympic Champions Katalin Kovács and Natasa Douchev-Janic to take the gold at last year’s world championships. Some new combinations emerged last season, including the only non-European K2 in the final, Teneale Hatton and Rachel Dodwell from New Zealand.

The exciting 200m is always a nail-biter to watch, and this season will be no different. Lisa Carrington will be the woman to beat, and is only one of a handful of women who go under 40 seconds. Both Poland’s Marta Walczykiewicz and Slovenia’s Špela Ponomarenko Janić cracked the 40 second barrier in Duisburg last year, and should provide Lisa her greatest obstacle to a triple 200m World Championship title. Lisa:

My preparation has gone really well. Being in the Southern Hemisphere our season has just finished with nationals champs on the weekend. So it has been a good block since Duisburg last year. I'll be doing both 200 and 500. After worlds last year I came away with a lot to work on for my 500 so looking forward to racing at the world cups.

In the men’s 200m, Swedish fast man Petter Öström upstaged both the Olympic silver and bronze medalists Spain’s Saúl Craviotto Rivero and Canada’s Mark de Jonge (CAN) to become the 2013 World Champion. Great British Olympic Gold Medalist Ed McKeever finished further back in 6th place. His British teammates Jon Schofield and Liam Heath secured the silver medal and will be looking to repeat their performance this season against the fast Russian crew of Yury Postrigay and Alexander Dyachenko. Although, with the World Sprint Championships taking place in Russia, their home ground advantage will be in full play.

After a very busy month of May, the European countries will turn their focus to the European Championships in Brandenburg, Germany from the 11th to 13th July. There are a few continental events taking place, including the Lake Placid International, NY, USA on July 6 & 7.

The Junior and U23 paddlers get to race their hearts out at one of the most crowd generating venues this year, as Szeged is hosting the Junior and U23 World Championships from the 17th to the 20th July. The Olympic Hopes Regatta takes place in Piešťtany, Slovakia from the 12th to the 14th of September, and is a fantastic developmental opportunity for the sport.

With the world’s eyes on Sochi right now for the Winter Olympics, Russia is in the limelight and will be again on August 6th – 10th with the ICF World Canoe Sprint Championships taking place in Krylatskoye , Moscow.

The Olympic Games were held in 1980 on the very same course, and since then major renovations have taken place, setting it up to host many international competitions including a World Cup and U23 Championships. With the standard of sprinting reaching new levels every year, the 2014 World Championships are sure to be a fantastic event.

2014 sprint competition calendar: www.sportscene.tv/flatwater/canoe-sprint/calendar