News

Czech Canoe Union stepped in as the new organiser of this year’s senior European Championships after London cancelled the sporting event due to Covid-19 pandemic. The championships is now expected to be organised between 18 and 20 September 2020 in Prague. On Friday, 18^th September, all heats are scheduled, on Saturday semi-finals and finals as well as team events in men’s K1 and women’s C1 will follow, and on Sunday the championships will close with women’s K1 and men’s C1 semi-final, final and team runs.

 

This year’s European Championships will not be a continental Olympic qualifier for Tokyo. The European continental Olympic qualifications will take place at the 2021 ECA Canoe Slalom European Championships in Ivrea, Italy.

 

 

Prague hosted Senior Canoe Slalom European Championships in 2018, and Czech Republic also hosted senior European Championships in 1998 in Roudnice. In 2018 Peter Kauzer, Ricarda Funk, Ryan Westley , Kašpar – Šindler and Viktoria Wolffhardt celebrated European Champion titles on Vltava River.

 

„We are honoured that the paddlers will come to Prague – Troja and fight for big medals again. We are very glad that we got this chance to organise this event. The ICF World Cup was moved to October originally, which caused us technical troubles due to planned reconstruction of the course. So, the event in September is much more acceptable and even more pleasant for the paddlers and fans. Also, our business partners agreed on the future cooperation on this event, so we thank to Uniqa, ČEZ and the Capital City of Prague for their support,” said the head of the organising committee Jiří Rohan.

 

 

Regardless of the new venue the Covid-19 situation will be taken into consideration, therefore ECA and organisers reserve the right to cancel the championships. All decisions about the organisation of the European Championships are subject to the actual health situation in Europe and recommendations of the World Health Organisation and the Host Country Government. The ECA will continuously monitor actual situation, opening of the borders and react promptly in coordination with the Organising Committee.

 

 

Sixty days before the Championships, the ECA and the OC will analyse whether the borders of the Countries whose teams have participated in the ECA Championship in recent years are open and decide whether it can be an official European Championships.

 

 

In any case the championships will have to be organised under special requirements and protocols to protect all athletes, coaches, staff and others who will attend the competition in order to prevent any health risks.