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President of the Spanish Canoe Federation Javier Hernanz was understandably thrilled with the results Spanish athletes had in the year 2023: "We had a dream season and therefore it is impossible to list all the results achieved, but the most significant fact of this season is that we have qualified for the Olympic Games 19 of the 22 possible quotas, leaving 20th and 21st, less than one tenth of qualifying, and breaking our historical record for direct classification."

 

It was not an easy task to decide who was the best of the best in Spain, but at the end canoe sprinters Antia Jacome and Rodrigo Germade received the awards for paddlers of the year in Spain. Antia Jacome won two medals at European Games in June, medals at World Championships in Duisburg as well as medals at World Cup in Szeged. Rodrigo Germade, too, started the season with a medal at World Cup in Hungary as a part of the men's K4 500 metres crew. At the European Games he celebrated gold with his K4 teammates, at World Championships in Dusiburg he won a medal in K2 500 metres event with Adrian del Rio, and also picked up medals at Paris World Cup in K4 and K2.

 

The best team of the year was women's canoe polo national team. Among juniors the awards went to the hands of Ana Cantero and Martin Lopez, in the U23 category Claudia Couto and Diego Dominguez celebrated at the gala. The best in paracanoe category were Araceli Menduina and David Gonzalez Mella, while the two RFEP legends awards were won by Antonio Campos and Amaya Osaba. Manuel Garrido received an award in human values category, while Martin Gonzales received a fan award.

 

The best male coach of the year became Kiko Martin, coach of Antia Jacome and Pablo Martinez, who received Jose Montes trophy, whole the best female coach of the year became Anais Bouchet, coach of Ainhoa Lameiro and Nuria Vilarrubla. The best judges of the year are Nerea Alonso and Ivan Ferro.

 

Special recognition was also given to the men's kayak slalom team (Pau Echaniz, David Llorente and Miquel Trave), women's kayak slalom team (Laia Sorribes, Olatz Arregui and Maialen Chourraut) and to women's senior K4 (Estefania Fernandez, Teresa Portela, Sara Ouzande and Carolina Garcia).