Twenty years after the 1993’s Worlds, Mezzana and Val di Sole (Trentino, in the heart of the Dolomites) are back on the scene with the Senior Italian Canoe Slalom Championships being held on Aug. 31st and Sept.1st on the rough waters of the Noce River in Mezzana.

For the youngest athletes, the word “Noce” doesn’t really mean very much, but for trainers and officials this means a natural course of water with at least 30 years of history behind it.

In the 80's and 90's, important events were held on this course including the Wildwater and Slalom Championship (1993), a European Slalom Championship (2000), a Junior Wildwater Championship (2004) and several World Cups.

In the last few years, the risk of several hydroelectric power plant projects being constructed along this beautiful and natural river (30 km of uninterrupted navigability of ww 3/4) encouraged the local Rafting Kayak Canoe Club - Val di Sole - to continue to organize important events on the river in order to preserve it from both a tourist and sports point of view, despite economic and financial interests.

Starting from this focus, the sport association accepted an invitation from the Italian Canoe Federation to bring the best Italian athletes to Mezzana's course.

For safety reasons, the 300m course for this year's race will be moved 100m upstream from the traditional one. This means the race will end before the historical, famous last drop but the course will not lose its challenging strength because of some natural and powerful combinations of eddies on the upper part that has never been used.

The organizing committee led by Luca Scaramella has set up a website (www.valdisolecanoe.it) where the latest news and all the results will be published. There will be a live result section for mobiles at m.valdisoloecanoe.it .

Daniele Molmenti will race and we hope that one of the toughest slalom courses in Italy will create a real challenge for the emerging De Gennaro’s  (Giovanni and Riccardo) and Zeno Ivaldi.

For some of the younger athletes this will be their first time on the course (as it is the first race held there since 2005) and there will definitely be some unpredictable results.

Together with the Senior Italian Championships, a National Junior Race will also be held.

Program:
Saturday 12 pm Qualifications (2 runs)
Sunday   10 am Finals and Teams (1 run)

Event site: www.valdisolecanoe.it