Sportscene | John Gregory | @gregiej - After a five week break the World Cup picks up again exactly three years since the London Olympics. The paddlers have been busy putting in sessions on Lee Valley for the upcoming Worlds next month, or racing at the Pan Am Games in Minden, Canada and competing in other national championships. Congratulations to Peak UK who celebrated 25 years supplying paddling wear.

It is always a fabulous race site and destination up in the Spanish Pyrenees. Here is a short preview of World Cup 4. Event website: http://laseudurgell.worldcup.events.slalom.canoeicf.com

Medal table from individual races after 3 World Cup races

The Czech Republic team are showing their strength leading the medal ahead of Slovakia who were leading at this same point in 2014. Spain and France are both well placed with home World Cup races coming up this month. No one paddler has been on the podium in all three World Cup races this year in any class.

Current World Cup 2015 series standings

See full table of current champions here.

C1M
Liptovsky winner was the double Olympic champion, Michal Martikan (SVK), who is once again World ranked No. 1. Among Martikan’s team-mates, Matej Benus, 27, lies 2nd in the World Cup series and World ranked 3rd behind David Florence (GBR). Alexander Slafkovsky was the race winner last year in Seu and 2nd in Liptovsky and World ranked 4.

Prague winner, Stanislav Jezek, 38, (CZE) maintained his form this season with gold in Prague and bronze in Liptovsky to lead the World Cup series.

Casey Eichfeld (USA) is still riding a wave from his win at the Pan Am Games on the Gull river last month in C1 and C2. You can vote for him as July Male Athlete in the Team USA awards.

Thomas Quinn (GBR) will be looking to see if he can replicate or improve on his personal best with 8th in last year’s Seu final.

C1W
Ana Satila (BRA) arrives back in Europe after securing the Pan American Games debut canoe slalom C1W gold ahead of Colleen Hickey (USA) and Haley Daniels (CAN).

Jess Fox (AUS) has won the last two years on this course. Jess shared her thoughts; “Seu is one of the smaller courses on the circuit but despite that it's really tricky. I think in C1 I've had good races there and been good on the technical moves, especially because of my switching. The girls are quite competitive in Seu, especially Nuria [Vilarrubla] and I know that to have a shot at beating her I need to pull out my best paddling and more! I've not managed to break through in K1 yet... but hoping to learn from my C1 experiences.”

We are without the winner of the last World Cup race in Liptovsky, Great Britain’s Mallory Franklin, at this weekend’s race.

K1M
Vavra Hradilek, (CZE) now leads the World Cup series. He commented; “It’s been good World Cup series for me so far. But as I started pretty hard preparation for London worlds I cannot say I am 100% ready for these two World Cups. Nevertheless, I still want to finish what I have started and dreamed about; to win the series overall. I think would be great to make a final in La Seu. Same for Pau”

A great win in Liptovsky by Deep Creek World’s bronze medallist, Mathieu Biazizzo (FRA). “I had a good start this season so far, and I hope I can continue that way. I'm now in La Seu preparing the race and it's a tricky course, plus there's not much water so you have to be aware with the poles with the flow and with the bottom of the river. The Spanish will be hard to beat on their home course. There has been a bit of a break since the last world cup and a training phase so I guess it will be interesting to see who's in good shape!” Look out for French team-mate Boris Neveu who is currently World, European, ICF World No. 1 and runner up in Sue twelve months ago.

Expect a strong performance from Samuel Hernanz (ESP) who was the winner on his home course in 2014 and 2nd in 2013.

K1W
One of the favourites this weekend must be Olympic bronze medallist, Maialen Chourraut (ESP) paddling on her home course. Chourraut, 32, was winner of last year’s Seu World Cup race as well as 2nd in Liptovsky behind Jana Dukatova (SVK) who now leads the World Cup series. Chourraut team-mate Marta Martinez was on the podium in Liptovsky and 5th in Seu last year. 

As noted above Jess Fox (AUS) is motivated to step up in K1W on this course, where both her parents raced in the Barcelona ’92 Olympics. Fox is also now ICF World ranked no. 1 in K1W.

Ricarda Funk won the recent German Championships but will be absent in Seu. "I am really happy about my performance during the first 3 World Cups 2015. I wouldn't have expected a currently 2nd place. Regrettably I won't Race in Seu, so I have no chance for the overall World Cup. But I am really looking forward to race in Pau. It is such a great course." This does provide an opportunity for Jasmin Schornberg 2nd in the German Championships and currently 3rd in the World Cup series to add further points to compliment her win in Prague.

C2
Mixed fortunes for Slovak C2 crews so far. While Peter & Pavol Hochschorner won in Liptovsky, uncharacteristically none of the crews made the Krakow final. Ladislav & Peter Skantar (SVK) were the 2014 Seu race winners.

Meanwhile, Klauss & Peche (FRA) remain World no. 1 and lead the World Cup series after 3 races.

It is the first racing season for the new British Etienne Stott & Mark Proctor crew. Proctor graded their first half season as a school report. “We came out of the blocks well at the Europeans in Germany, finishing 5th. If Leipzig was a grade A, Prague was more of a C. So all-in-all, I’d say the first half of the international season has been to the standard of a B+.” In reference to racing in Seu he added, “Seu is a place I always love coming to. The general calmness of the town and the race always bring with it exciting tight racing. It's my first time here in C2 and I'm looking forward to seeing what we can do over the weekend.”

La Seu d’Urgell Race Format:

• Friday Aug 7 C1M, C1W, K1M, K1W and C2 heats
• Saturday Aug 8 C1M, C1W & K1M semi-final & final
• Sunday Aug 9 K1W & C2 semi-final & final

5 weeks until Lee Valley Worlds
After the Seu World Cup we have:

• World Cup Final – Pau, France, August 14-16
• ECA Junior / U23 European Championships – Krakow, Poland, August 26-30
• Senior World Championships – Lee Valley, UK, September 16-20

I will be providing live race tweets through the World Cup series and World Championships using #ICFslalom all season. Follow me @gregiej.