Modern day battles in the capital of Wales.

John Gregory - @gregiej | Sportscene - The international elite in canoe slalom are descending upon the city of Cardiff in Wales for the start of the first World Cup race of the 2013 season. We again return to the Cardiff International Whitewater Centre to watch our new Olympians battle it out on the swirling green waters on this short tight course.

Here is a short preview of what to expect this weekend for World Cup 1 in Cardiff. Results will be available on www.sportscene.tv/liveresults and there will be further information on the ICF Cardiff website. As you would expect Sportscene will be in the thick of it covering the event gathering interview with some of the top 200 paddlers for among the 23 nations and bring you end of race days reviews.

K1M – Kayak Single Men
This category is very open with a spectrum of World class paddlers capable of winning the event. These include four former K1M World Champions; David Ford (Canada), Fabian Dorfler (Germany) and two time champions Fabien Lefevre (originally France - now USA) and Peter Kauzer (Slovenia). Sebastien Schubert from Germany won last year’s race and this month bronze at the European Championships. Equally European Champion Jiri Prskavec from the Czech Republic cannot be discounted. I am awaiting the first World Cup/ World Championship wins from Vavrinec Hradilek and Hannes Aigner who have developed great consistency and real flair. With Daniele Molmenti not racing in Cardiff this could be their day.

K1W – Kayak Single Women
We have two double Olympic Champions taking part Stepanka Hilgertova (Czech Republic) and Elena Kaliska (Slovakia). We have the upcoming Jessica Fox, silver medallist in London who last year also won the Junior World Championships and already this year won the Pyrenees Cup. Fiona Pennie has just swept up Great Britain’s first exciting K1W win at a top international level in 18 years. This weekend we are missing French Olympic Champion Emilie Fer and Spain’s Maialen Chourraut who was our 2012 winning. Don’t be concerned, with the reigning and four other former World Champions racing it will be tight and could be all down to penalties.

C1M – Canadian Single Men
This is an exciting category with paddlers kneeling in the boat and using a single bladed paddle. On tight short courses such as Cardiff the run times can be very similar to the K1M. Beijing silver medallist and World Number 1 David Florence from Great Britain won the event in 2012. The standout paddler for me at last year’s Olympics was Germany’s exciting rising star 23 year old Sideris Tasiadis who won silver at Lee Valley and silver again in Krakow this month. The current French World Champion, Denis Gargaud Chanut will also be out to prove he is now top dog following the retirement of countryman 3-time Olympic Champion Tony Estanguet.

C1W – Canadian Single Women
Yet to become an Olympic discipline this is an amazing group of younger paddlers to watch. Another Australian to watch is Rosalyn Lawrence was our winner at this World Cup race last year. See what she said about Cardiff and her expectations for 2013 in one of our earlier articles. Caroline Loir from France recently won the European Championships for the second time in three years.

C2 – Canadian Doubles (Men)
In the C2 event the Cardiff spectators will witness a clash of titans. Olympic medallists from 2012 Tim Baillie, Etienne Stott, David Florence & Richard Hounslow will be in action. Two times Olympic silver medallist, David Florence together with his back man Richard Hounslow were the winners in the dramatic C2 category in Cardiff last year. However, be warned as three times Olympic C2 Champions and reigning World Champions Pavol & Peter Hochschorner will be back in the UK to avenge for their defeat at Lee Valley last summer. However, there are a total of eight crews who have won medals in the last five years including both silver and bronze medallists of the whole 2012 World Cup also in the mix

Overall, four of the race winners from the 2012 Cardiff World Cup race are in action; David Florence (GBR), Rosalyn Lawrence (AUS), Sebastien Schubert (GER) and Richard Hounslow (GBR). Earlier this year I was fortunate to interview David, Rosalyn & Richard. David remarked “The cheering and support at Cardiff last year was fantastic. It would be great to have a big crowd behind us and make the event an even bigger spectacle.” Ros described winning on her first ever visit to the course “The venue at Cardiff is definitely world-class, and the World Cup event there last year was excellent. I like that the area in the middle of the course is so small, making it easier to do walk-backs and watch other people.” Richard commented “I think Cardiff is a very challenging course considering it is smaller than many of the newer artificial sites. As with any world cup, I expect the competition to be very strong. The C2 class on a worldwide scale has probably developed faster than any other category in the last 4 years and it will be interesting to see how things move on during the Rio cycle.”

The three days of thrilling competition in Cardiff are packed full with 5 individual categories (K1M, K1W, C1M, C1W and C2), together with team races on Sunday in each class. It is great to have team races in the World Cup. A team is made up of three paddlers from the same nation racing in a synchronised fashion down the course. Well worth watching especially the C2s. It is set to be an exciting World Cup with 10 of the medallists from London 2012 and 13 medallists straight off the plane from the Krakow European championships.

Fresh from the European Championships less than two weeks ago, we have 13 medallists who have come straight from Krakow, Poland to familiarise themselves with the Cardiff course. These include 40 of the 2012 Olympic paddlers including 10 medallist from London. Sportscene will be providing daily race reports.

Links

Live results: www.sportscene.tv/liveresults or MOBILE

Event website: www.canoecardiff2013.com

Live stream: http://eurovision.digotel.com/icf/index.html

For all slalom news visit: www.sportscene.tv/whitewater/canoe-slalom/news