Floods brought concern to the organisers of the 2017 ECA Canoe Slalom European Championships in Tacen
8.5.2017
08/05/2017 - Heavy rain in the last days of April caused a lot of concern among the organisers of the 2017 ECA Canoe Slalom European Championships in Ljubljana – Tacen. The course and venue were flooded and after the water level dropped it became clear that a lot of work that has already been put into the preparation of the European Championships over the last months has been washed away.
“The water level during the last floods was really high and it flooded majority of the venue. All the hard work we already invested into the venue is gone; we’re now at the beginning. Approximately 50m3 of material has been washed away, so we will have to cart the new material to the venue again and harden everything. We haven’t seen the bottom of the course yet, so we cannot estimate the extent of the damages because Sava River is not transparent enough at the moment,” said Jakob Marušič, head of the organisation, during a press conference early in May.
“There are significant damages on the river bank, both on the old part from the year 1990 as well as on the new part. This confirmed that the concrete which the construction company used last year was of bad quality. We will have to carry on negotiations with the construction company regarding the reclamation and then repair the course. It seems we will not finish the construction works until the very last days before the championships. Unfortunately the grass and green areas we are used to in Tacen will be missing in some parts of the venue. The nature really tricked us and made this Championships more expensive for tens of thousands of Euros,” Marušič added.
Despite the problems the organisers believe they will be able to solve majority of the issues with little more than three weeks remaining until the start of the 2017 ECA Canoe Slalom European Championships.
The 2017 ECA Canoe Slalom European Championships in Ljubljana – Tacen will start on 31st May with an opening ceremony in the Ljubljana City centre, while competitions will be held between 1st and 4th June in Tacen, a suburb of Ljubljana.
Tickets for the event are already on sale. The presale prices are slightly cheaper than they will be when bought at the championships venue during the competition days. In a presale a ticket for each day is 4 Euros and ticket package for four competition days costs 12 Euros (one day is free), while tickets will cost 5 Euros each day when bought at the venue and 4-day ticket package will cost 15 Euros if bought at the venue (one day will be also free). Children under the age of 15 will have a free entrance. Organisers also reached an agreement with the Ljubljana City Public Transport, so all bus rides will be free of charge for those who will present a ticket to a bus driver on a day when the ticket is valid. Tickets can be bought in Kompas Holidays and M Holidays tourist offices across Slovenia as well as online:
8.5.2017
