This year’s ECA Canoe Sprint, Paracanoe and SUP European Championships will take place between 13th and 16th of June in Szeged, Hungary. The last time a continental championships in canoe sprint was organised on Maty-ér was 22 years ago. There will be races in paracanoeing too, but what makes these days historically meaningful for Hungarian organisers and the European Canoe Association is the fact that this will be the first ECA SUP European Championships.
’’SUP has developed massively in the last few years and its popularity is increasing day by day,” said Noémi Horváth the race director of the ECH, previous SUP World Championships winner. Since 2019, there have been four SUP World Championships, one of them was organised in Balatonfüred, Hungary. “It was our great pleasure and honour, when the European Canoe Association accepted our suggestion to hold the first SUP European Championships in Hungary,” added Horváth.
YOU CAN ENTER the race if you are at least 15 years old. Neither professional status nor past international/national results are needed. Regarding the race, everybody will race in open category. Those who compete on hard boards can enter long distance (9 km), technical (1000 m) and sprint (200 m) races as well.
Only in long distance race juniors and masters can enter in their age category and will receive medals separately of the open athletes. For those who prefer inflatable boards there will be a four and a half kilometres long race. It is already possible to register for the European Championships, if you
click here! For more information on the events, entry fees and other important details, see the official
bulletin.
’’Our aim is to make the first European Championships memorable, and we would like to involve everybody who likes SUP, therefore we provide the opportunity for anybody to challenge and compete against the best of the continent. On the stands there will be thousands of supporters, and we hope that the finals can be followed by television viewers too. We would like to let people know, how strong the SUP community has become,” Noémi Horváth said.
Three years ago at Balatonfüred there were 500 participants at the World Championships and plenty of people followed the races along the Tagore Promenade. The World Cup held at Lake Lupa in 2022 was also a success, the European Championships will be the third international race of the discipline in Hungary.
At the Maty-ér race course this will be the first international SUP event. Its program will be integrated into the canoe sprint and paracanoeing events. Noémi Horváth pointed out: “The European Championships will be another milestone in the life of the discipline, since all the professional background will be provided for the SUP competitors just like for the Olympic participants in canoe sprint.”
At the end Noémi Horváth, the race director of the European Championships and ECA technical delegate for this discipline, said: “In terms of organisation and hosting we received lots of positive responses after the World Championships at Balatonfüred. Building on the experiences we gained there, our aim is to provide the best possible support for participants in Szeged and host a world-class competition. Participants will race on an ICF approved race course, there will be electric time keeping with photo finish camera, automatic starting system for the sprint heats and all of this will be supervised by experienced International Technical Officials. In addition, basically we are in the middle of the continent and Maty-ér is an accessible location both for the national and foreign paddlers.”
BULLETIN: https://canoe-europe.org/preview-file/echszeged2024-6265.pdf
12.2.2024
