2015 ICF World Championships Slalom
 
1
2
3
K1M
CZ J. PRSKAVEC
PL M. POLACZYK
US M. SMOLEN
K1W
CZ K. KUDEJOVA
DE R. FUNK
DE M. PFEIFER
C1M
GB D. FLORENCE
SI B. SAVSEK
GB R. WESTLEY
C1W
AU J. FOX
CZ K. HOSKOVA
ES N. VILARRUBLA
C2
DE ANTON/BENZIEN
FR PICCO/BISO
FR KLAUSS/PECHE

Canoe Slalom

Punters Guide to Form – Pan Am Canoe Slalom preview

canoe kayak slalom pan american am games 2015 toronto canada minden icf sportscene gull river

Sportscene | John Gregory | @gregiej – Top level international canoe slalom returns to the Gull river in Minden for the first time in more than 20 years. Here is a short round-up of what to expect as well as our punters guide to which athletes are on form coming into these Pan Am Games.

By international standards this is a small event. The ICF World Cup and World Championships have three boats per class and routinely 40-50 nations taking part. The Olympics in comparison has one boat per class and London 2012 had 30 nations. The Pan Am Games similarly has one boat per class. It is important for these 40 paddlers and 10 nations is that the race also serves as the qualification for the Rio Olympic quota for nations.

There is stiff competition for Canada as they look for their first home win and medal James Cartwright, Slalom High Performance Manager at CanoeKayak Canada described; “We are honoured to welcome the Pan-American teams to this spectacular venue and very excited to see the athletes in action on the water. It is a truly stunning venue and I am confident that the natural beauty of the Minden Wild Water Preserve will provide many stunning images and exposure of slalom athletes in action”. Meanwhile the US Team is coming to Ontario on the back of their home Worlds, “We're very excited for slalom's Pan American Games debut. This event will provide both the Pan Am Team and our athletes competing in the continental Olympic qualification event a tremendous opportunity to compete in an Olympic-type environment” says Aaron Mann, National Team member and USA Canoe/Kayak Director of Communications.

Olympic Qualification
As highlighted, this race is also important for other reasons. This July’s Pan Am Games in Minden Hills is part of the qualification process for the Rio Olympics. Only four of the Pan Am countries competed in the last London2012 Olympic canoe slalom race at Lee Valley, namely; Argentina, Brazil, Canada and USA. There were 9 of the Pan American nations competing at the most recent Deep Creek Canoe Slalom Worlds.

Our Punters Guide to Form

canoe kayak slalom pan american am games 2015 toronto canada minden icf sportscene gull river

C1M
Sebastian Rossi (ARG) snapped his paddle at the start of the 2015 U23 World Championship semi-final. In so doing he achieved by far the most views internationally on social media.  Rossi provided us an astonishing master class on negotiating a World Championship course with no paddle. He will this time be seeking a clean run in the final.

Casey Eichfeld (USA) put in one of his best runs to date to take 2nd in the semi-final at the Krakow World Cup race just 0.09 seconds behind. “It is really exciting that canoe slalom is included in the Pan American Games this year! And it acting as an Olympic Continental qualifier pushes it over the top! I'm looking for some strong and fast racing so that we can secure some positions for the United States at the upcoming Rio Olympics. We will be racing on a natural river which is a nice change from the concrete we've become familiar with. It is an exciting event, and I can't wait to be in the start gate!” commented Eichfeld.

Sadly, reigning C1M World Champion Fabien Lefevre is unable to race while he completes his application for US citizenship. Canada’s Cameron Smedley will be hoping for a home advantage.

canoe kayak slalom pan american am games 2015 toronto canada minden icf sportscene gull river

C1W
This is the youngest of the five classes both in resect of how long it has been part of the ICF World Championship and also in the average age of the athletes. It is dominated by a small handful of nations who invested early in developing this class.

The U23 World Champion is Ana Satila (BRA), ICF ranked World no. 11 and currently 5th in the 2015 World Cup series and assuming she keeps her form on this course should be on the podium if not win. Several athletes also report some similarities between her home training site of Foz and the Gull River. Through the first three races of the 2015 World Cup races she comes to Minden as the top ranked C1W paddler.

Satila, 19, shared her anticipation about travelling to compete in Canada for the first time, “I’m very excited for Pan Ams! It’ll be an amazing event and is very important for my country. I really wanna paddle there and know a different place. Everybody said that I’d love that place so I really wanna go! I’ll have to improvise a lot but I just need do my best to adapt during the trains and be ready to race!!”

Racing against Satila will be Canada’s Hayley Daniels, 24, ”I am so excited to be apart of history with the debut of canoe slalom and women's canoe in the Pan American games.  The opening ceremonies has given me so much motivation where the moment we walked in the stadium and there are 50,000 people cheering for you. Our venue in Minden is a beautiful picturesque natural river which will prove to be an interesting race as most of our races of the season are on man made courses. I have had a lot of success of this river where I hope to translate that into my racking next weekend.”

canoe kayak slalom pan american am games 2015 toronto canada minden icf sportscene gull river

K1M
There are several top athletes. Among them Ben Hayward (CAN), 25, who told Sportscene, “I have been racing the Gull every year for most of my paddling career so I'm feeling great heading into the Pan Ams. The course is one of two world class venues that we have in Canada and I think it will be a great place to show the world how we can run a great event. It is pushy whitewater, like sections of Tacen, and it will make for a really interesting technical race.”

While Alberta’s Hayward was the quickest athlete at last year’s text event on the Gull river, he has some competition from some key up and coming under 23 year old paddlers. Michal Smolen, 21, from the US was the 2014 U23 K1M World Champion and throughout 2014 was one of the key U23 athletes to watch through the World Cup series. "I'm thrilled canoe slalom is making its debut at the Pan-American Games and I'm very much looking forward to the competing next weekend. This will be the first competition where North and South America get the chance to qualify Olympic quota spots and I'm eager to earn a spot for Team USA. The nerves will be there no doubt, but it's quite exciting to finally have Rio 2016 within sight. I've paddled in Minden at the Canadian team trials and I really like the course. It's an unusual place to host the games since most races nowadays are done on artificial whitewater, but it's quite special to compete on a natural river for a change.” Also look out for Pedro (Pepe) Da Silva, 22, from Brazil won the heat of the K1M earlier this year at the U23 World Championship.

canoe kayak slalom pan american am games 2015 toronto canada minden icf sportscene gull river

K1W
Ana Satila (BRA) was a former K1W Junior World Champion and competed in the London Olympics at only 15. Ana is now ranked 31 in the World and currently 20th in the 2015 World Cup series. Among her closest competition will be Jazmyne Denhollander (CAN) and Ashley Nee (USA) who have all recently returned from European World Cup races.

canoe kayak slalom pan american am games 2015 toronto canada minden icf sportscene gull river

C2M
There has been no C2 crew in an ICF final in recent years. The partial exception being the recent 2015 Junior/ U23 World Championships in Foz, Brazil. In the U23 World Championship final in Foz we saw not just one but seven boats from outside Europe. This marks a watershed in C2 paddling at this level. Charles Correa & Anderson Oliveira (BRA) won the U23 C2 World Championship heat with a clear run. “We're really looking forward to entering the race. It's been one of our main goal since we started in C2, along with last Foz worlds and Rio 2016. It's going to be very special to all of us racing here”, added Correa who with partner Anderson Oliveira are now ranked 29th in the World.

The other big movement in canoe slalom is the Save C2 http://www.facebook.com/savec2men campaign. With the important inclusion of C1W in the 2020 Toyko Olympics C2 is likely the casualty. This class is always fiercely contested and sensational to watch. Some crews like Ben Hayward & Cameron Smedley (CAN) are made up of paddlers competing in K1M or C1M. Olympian Casey Eichfeld (USA) is another racing in two classes paring with Devin McEwan. They have shown great form in the past 12 months as an up-and-coming C2 crew from outside Europe.

History of Canoe Slalom in the Americas
Canoe Slalom has deep routes in Europe where the first World Championships were held in 1949. It was not until the Jonquiere World Championships in 1979, that they were first held in the Americas. The Worlds have subsequently been held in 1989 on the Savage River, Maryland then again 25 years later at Deep Creek in 2014. In between the 1997 Worlds were held at Tres Coroas, Brazil and again for the 2007 Worlds in Foz do Iguassu. The other major race of course was the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, which raced on the Ocoee river. It may be surprising then to learn that Canada’s David Ford was canoe slalom World Champion in 1999 in Seu. Cathy Hearn and Rebecca Giddens from the US were K1W World Champions in 1979 and 2002 respectively. In the late 1970-1990’s the US were almost unbeatable in C1M through legends of the sport Jon Lugbill & Davey Hearn < The Ultimate Run – 25 years on >. Canoe Slalom returned to Canada in the 1990s for three World Cup series races on the Gull River in Minden. The US have won 5 Olympic canoe slalom medals of which one was gold in 1992 for Joe Jacobi and Scott Strausbaugh in C2. It is all the more excited to have canoe slalom debut in the 17th Pan Am Games a year prior to the Rio Olympics in Brazil. Ahead of the Rio Olympics I have been specifically following the Brazilian Canoe Slalom Team. You can read more here:

canoe kayak slalom pan american am games 2015 toronto canada minden icf sportscene gull river

What to expect in Minden
Spectators should expect a thrilling intense two-day spectacle. They are encouraged to come well prepared for an outdoor event in purpose built stands along the picturesque Gull river. It has been extensively redeveloped from its 1972 origins, including the Roger Parsons centre. One former canoe slalom world champion described the Gull river in Minden as “one the most challenging courses.” Follow this link for information about the Minden Whitewater Preserve.

Race Schedule:

  • Friday July 17 – Demonstration runs
  • Saturday July 18 – Morning TO2015 heats in C1M, C1W, K1M with afternoon heats in K1W & C2. Athletes will be ranked by the best of their two runs. Olympic qualifying heats in C1M, K1M, K1W & C2.
  • Sunday July 19 – Morning TO2015 semi-final and final in C1M, C1W, K1M with afternoon K1W & C2 and semi-final and final. Olympic qualifying semi-final and final in C1M, K1M, K1W and C2

Post race analysis
In the days following the Pan Am Games Canoe Slalom race we will publish a post race review and analysis. This will include a summary of the respective winners of the heat, semi-final and final, podium in each class as well as race percentages and quotes from the athletes.

I will be providing live race tweets through the Pan Am Games @gregiej and using #MWP2015

Photo credits: Brazilian Canoe Federation, Sportscene, Balint Vekassy, Sarah Ruhlen