21st April; this season's racing began in Ventspils last weekend. The "Dampeļi" rowing centre opens.

Anton Knesis | Sportscene - Usually these are small scale competitions for young paddlers, but this year it was different because this competition was also a celebration of the opening of the renovated "Dampeļi" rowing centre. The site has 82 years of history and many champions were raised here.

The centre has new changing rooms with showers and a sauna. It has a new gym with everything that paddlers need to workout if they are not on the water, new rooms for coaches and guestrooms for visitors wishing to stay here. Latvian paddlers are happy about Ventspil's new training centre and are inspired to do everything to have their own.

All of Latvia's best paddlers and veterans were invited to take part in this celebration and compete in the 200m sprint course.

Results

K1M 200m
1. Mārtiņš Upītis 1982.g. Jelgava KC
2. Kaspars Tīklenieks 1993.g. Salacgrīva
3. Krists Straume 1986.g. Rīdzene

C1M 200m
1. Dagnis Iļjins 1992.g. Ventspils
2. Gatis Pranks 1986.g. Jelgava BJSS
3. Arvis Iļjins 1994.g. Talsi

K1W 200m
1. Lāsma Liepa 1988.g. Rīdzene
2. Digna Tuča 1988.g. Ventspils
3. Madara Aldiņa 1994.g. Rīdzene

C1W 200m
1. Elīna Ēdole 1990.g. Jelgava BJSS
2. Marija Šutova 1992.g. Rīdzene

K1M 200m Veterans
1. Andris Valters Ventspils
2. Alens Baibekovs 1978.g. Ventspils
3. Juris Seļezņovs Rīga

C1M 200m Veterans
4. Dagnis Vinogradovs Limbaži
5. Ramiro Grandāns 1969.g. Jelgava
6. Imants Orna 1954.g. Liepāja

K1W 200m Veterans
1. Marika Junkere Ventspils
2. Ildze Blumbaha Liepāja
3. Ludmila Lazdeniece 1959.g. Rīdzene

Latvia has 11 canoe clubs in nine cities; only three of them have been renovated and have good facilities for training and rest. We all hope that our paddling clubs will keep this trend and that there will be more centres like this.

Usually we have traditional championships on the 1st of May in Jelgava, but it has been a very long and cold winter so the water level is very high. The stream is very fast, so our administration has decided to postpone the "Latvian, Baltic Long Distanse Championships" to the 11th of May.

For more photos visit the photo gallery.