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The Royal Spanish Canoe Federation (RFEP) awarded their best athletes at the annual gala evening held in Madrid. It was an evening to celebrate great success of the Spanish athletes in the past season which will be written in the history books of the canoeing in Spain as one of the most memorable ones. Medallists of the Olympic Games were in the spotlight at the national gala event and more than 300 attendees were able to relieve the magic moments from Rio de Janeiro with the help of the video projections of all the Olympic finals.

Canoe Slalom Olympic Champion Maialen Chourraut was – unsurprisingly – named the best female paddler of the year in Spain. The ‘David Cal award’ for the best male paddler was this time given to three canoe sprint athletes. Olympic Champions from Rio de Janeiro – Saul Craviotto Rivero, Cristian Isaac Toro Carballo and Marcus Cooper Walz – all received the award for their great success in the Lagoa Rodrigo de Freitas. The complete Olympic and Paralympic team, including the staff and technicians, received also a special mention during the gala evening.

The best male paracanoeing athlete of the year is Javier Reja Muñoz, the best female paracanoeist Elena del Mar Naveiro, the best male U23 athlete Roi Rodriguez Huertas, the best female U23 athlete Begoña Lazcano Guimerans, the best junior male paddler David Barreiro and the best female junior paddler Laia Sorribes. The best team of the year 2016 is senior canoe polo team. Coaches Miguel Garcia, Xabier Etxaniz and Luis Brasero, whose athletes won medals in Rio, were awarded the ‘José Montes award’.

The RFEP also recognised the technical officials – the award ‘Jacinto Regueira’ for the best technical official went to the hands of Enric Balastegui Artigues, Pere Framis, who passed away last year, was given a posthumous award, and the Spanish federation also recognised the sponsors and media professionals. The ceremony started with the presentation of the awards to the clubs, athletes, delegates in the national leagues in canoe slalom, sprint, polo, freestyle, wildwater downriver canoeing, ocean racing and marathon.

The list of all the winners is available here.

Source: http://www.rfep.es/publicacion/noticias.asp?n=2786