Written by Daniele Molmenti and Heather Hankinson - From a bird’s eye view, the city of Miyi looks uncannily like a real life version of the computer game of Sim-city. What looks like exactly the same building is repeated throughout with only the occasional stadium or park breaking up the skyscrapers. This is the Chinese location of the 7th Asian Canoe Slalom Championship.

On the ground, Miyi is is a peaceful city on a red valley within the Sichuan Province of China. It is surrounded by mines, the source of a large percentage of the local economy, that are hidden between mountains and in acres of cycad forest. There’s also the river Yalong, which is a dam vent canal that follows the river line and helps thousands of farmers irrigate their land. Where this vent canal enters the city it becomes the stadium for the National Canoe Slalom Centre. This venue hosted the Asia Championships in 2011. This year it is the venue for the first race of the 2012 ICF ranking events, which is also the Asian qualification race for the London 2012 Olympic Games.

Organized by the NOC with the help of Sue Natoli (ICF) and Jean-Michele Prono (ICF Slalom Chairman), the race started on 16 December. The heats consisted of two runs for all 70 boats from Asian nations such as China, Japan, Korea, China Taipei, Hong-Kong, Uzbekistan, Iran, Libyan, Malaysia, Singapore, Kazakhstan, and Thailand. There were also two European guests, one each from Slovenia and Italy.

Saturday 17th was the day of the semis and the final races which would declare the championship titles and Olympics spots.

In men’s C1, the Chinese athletes dominated the final: Teng Zhiquiang won with a time of 103.42sec, followed by Feng Liming with 110.25sec and in third, Zhang Hang with 110.25sec. The first non-Chinese was Kazakhstan athlete Cherkassov Sergey in 6th place with a time of 122.94sec. This achievement won Kazakhstan an Olympic spot.

In men’s K1, Daniele Molmenti (ITA) lead the race with a time of 98.84sec in front of the Asia Champion Xian Jinbin (CHI, 101.85sec) and Huang Cunguang (CHI, 102.67sec). Fourth place - but bronze medal of the Asian Championship – went to Husslein Hermann (THA) who also qualified the Olympic spot for Thailand. This was unprecedented and Hermann achieved it with a time of 103.45sec.

In women’s C1 the podium was again all Chinese. Lead by Teng Qianquian (133.29sec) who took the gold medal, followed by Cen Nanqin (136.51sec) and Xu Yanru (188.64sec).

In women’s K1, Japanese athelete Kaifuchi Moe won the bronze medal with the time of 120.30sec and qualified the spot and a personal place for the Olympic Games in London. Gold and silver medals went to the Chinese athletes Zou Yingying (116.87sec) and Li Lu (120.21sec) respectively.

In C2, it was a Chinese podium again and the Chinese team got the Olympic spot: gold for Hu-Shu (106.08sec), silver for Li-Teng (112.97sec) and bronze for Chen-Shan (116.91sec). Japanese boat Samma-Nagao finished 4th with 117.58sec.

The team event took place in the late afternoon of Saturday 17th and saw the Chinese domination in all categories.

Sunday 18th was the day of the drift race: a race from the start of the slalom racecourse to the finish, without gates. Whilst it was easy for the public to understand, it was not so easy for the athletes to catch the best line in this incredible wild-water course. The drift race produced some surprising results: C2 and K1 were very close and Li Gingin (a female athlete) was able to jump on the podium ahead of all the male competitors. In the drift-team event the women’s team (CHI) beat the best male team (TPE)! This was not the first time Asian Canoe Association ran this event and this coupled with the simple rules brought many people from Miyi to cheer all the athletes and enjoy a full day of adrenalin sport!

In a city of 26,000 habitants, the race had about 2600 spectators per day so was a big success. The nice weather all weekend, consistent water, great results, and a splendid fair play from all athletes, judges and public made one of the best slalom event of the season.