On the last day of the year 2023, Rade Kovačević, a legendary canoeing official, coach, enthusiast, whose greatest canoeing legacy is the world-famous course in Tacen, passed away after an illness.
Rade Kovačević was born on September 1, 1948 in the village of Rvati near Raška in Serbia. He left his home to attend school in Zagreb, where he completed university. There he encountered canoeing, in which he was a competitor, coach and official. After finishing his studies, he got a job in Slovenia, at the company Nivo, where he worked as a designer. Rade left a big mark in the Rašica Kayak Canoe Club in Tacen, where he was a coach between 1979 and 1986, and later also president of the club. During this period, many competitors of the Tacen club won medals at major competitions, and the biggest successes were achieved by Jože Vidmar, Janez Skok and Albin Čižman. Rade was also the head coach of the Yugoslav canoe slalom national team for a long time. In the early 1990s, he was also served a term as a member of the canoe slalom committee of the International Canoe Federation (ICF).
Rade's greatest legacy is the canoe slalom course in Tacen. As the chief designer, he and his colleagues completely redesigned the canoeing course in Tacen, on which the competitors competed for the first time in the year before the 1991 World Championship in Tacen. Unfortunately, not all the ideas of that period were realized. However, the new canoe slalom channel with new grandstands made it possible to organise all major canoeing competitions in the following years.
We would like to express our sincere condolences to family and friends. Rade, rest in peace.
The funeral will take place on Thursday, January 11, 2024, at 11 a.m. at the Klagenfurt cemetery.
7.1.2024
