This weekend will see Canoe Slalom athletes compete behind closed doors at a World Cup race in Pau, France, where London 2012 Olympian Hannah Craig, and Tokyo 2021 confirmed Olympian Liam Jegou will both be racing for Ireland.
After the massive COVID disruptions for the International canoe slalom community this season, getting the opportunity to once again paddle on the magnificent Pau course will be a moment to savour this weekend and a return to the international circuit.
A few days after having hosted the selections for the composition of the French team for the next Olympic Games (from October 7 to 11), the White Water Stadium will once again be the stage of spectacular women’s and men’s races in slalom and extreme slalom.
Canoe Slalom
Canoe Slalom is an Olympic discipline which consists in doing a wild water course almost 400 metres in length as quickly as possible whilst respecting a mandatory route, indicated by gates (18 to 25 maximum). There are two types of gate:
- Green gates: passed through heading downstream
- Red gates: negotiated heading upstream
Gates which the canoer touches, or those that are not crossed, are counted as penalties, which add to the finishing time of the course (2 seconds for a touch, 50 seconds for a missed gate).
International categories
- Men’s kayak single (MK1) and women’s kayak single (WK1)
- Men’s canoe single (MC1) and women’s canoe single (WC1)
- Men’s Extreme Canoe Slalom (MCSLX) and Women’s Extreme Canoe Slalom (WCSLX)
Courses involving team events with three boats also exist.
Canoe Slalom is practised on more or less complicated whitewater courses depending on the level of the competition, with a qualifying phase of two rounds followed by a semi-final and a final round.
