MADRID, 22 Ago. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Spanish canoeing team faces from this Wednesday until August 27 the World Championship in the sprint modality, which is held in Duisburg (Germany) and in which it will seek the largest possible number of places for the next Olympic Games in Paris, as well as confirming his leadership in the medal table of the 2022 edition in Halifax (Canada).
The World Cup distributes 22 places in kayak in the male category and as many in the female category between the K1 1000, K2 500 and K4 500, while in canoe 13 for each gender are put into contention in two tests, C1 1000 and C2 500. And in each of them, Spanish paddlers have options to stamp their ticket to Paris 2024.
The Spanish banner is the K4 500 boat, crewed by Saúl Craviotto, Carlos Arévalo, Marcus Cooper and Rodrigo Germade, who has just been European champion in Krakow (Poland) and who in Duisburg will defend the World Cup gold achieved last year in Halifax . They are widely favourites, but they will seek to certify their presence in Paris, where they should be one of the clearest options for a medal.
“We are eager and excited, we arrived very well prepared, like all the other countries. Although it is true that we have the pressure of being the current world champions and of arriving in Duisburg after having won gold in the European Championship in Krakow. But now we have to reset and start from scratch, we all have the same chances,” Craviotto declared in the preview of the championship.
Facing the K2 500, Adrián del Río and Rodrigo Germade, who will double the test, will seek to have their boat in Paris for a contest that returns to the Olympic program. Not surprisingly, this test has not been in the Games since Beijing 2008, when Carlos Pérez and Saúl Craviotto won gold.
In the long test of the Olympic program, the K1 1000, Paco Cubelos will seek a place in the top six, in one of the most disputed events of the competition. Cubelos will double the distance, contesting the K1 5000.
In the K1 200 test, the Spanish team defends Carlos Arévalo’s gold in Halifax, but in Duisburg it will be Carlos Garrote who tries to emulate what the Galician did just over a year ago. The other two Spaniards who will compete are Iñigo Peña, who will do so in the K1 500, and will double the test with the K2 1000, where his partner will be Pedro Vázquez.
In the women’s category, the K4 500 of Sara Ouzande, Estefanía Fernández, Carolina García and Teresa Portela finished second in the last round of the World Cup and is aiming for higher levels. Her challenge to get a place for Paris 2024 would mean, if she succeeds, the added prize of Portela facing her seventh Olympic Games.
The individual test that can qualify for Paris 2024 is the K1 500 that will be crewed by Isa Contreras, who won gold in the Szeged World Cup in the K1 1000. But in the half hectometre he will not fight among the favorite boats, while the The third test that will be Olympic in Paris is the K2 500, which in Duisburg will have a Spanish team made up of Laia Pèlachs and Begoña Lazkano.
The program for this World Cup in Duisburg will be completed with four other tests that will not be Olympic. These are the K1 200 with the Spanish participation of Teresa Tirado, the K1 1000 with Laura Pedruelo, the K1 5000 with Estefanía Fernández and the K2 200 with the sisters Elisa and Mercedes Zapata.
In canoe, seven girls are going to contest the seven tests that are marked in the program. Although the most important thing is focused on two of them, both Olympic; Antía Jacomé, who won gold in last year’s European Championship and bronze in this year’s World Cup, will participate in the C1 200. Jacomé will be in the C2 5000 alongside María Corbera.
On the non-Olympic tests, in C2 200, Jacomé and Corbera seek to repeat or improve the silver of the European in Krakow, in addition Corbera will also compete in the C1 500, in which he was silver in that European. Cristina Soutelo (C1 1000 and 5000) appears in the two long distance events, while the C4 500 team will be made up of María dels Angels Moreno, Antía Otero, Claudia Couto and Valeria Oliveira.
In the men’s category, the team formed by Pablo Martínez and Cayetano García in the C2 500 will seek to repeat the gold in Halifax and secure the place for Paris. The same situation in which the paddler Diego Domínguez finds himself in C1 1000, who chooses to be in the French capital for the longest test of the canoe program. In the non-Olympic events, Noel Domínguez will compete in the C1 5000 meters and the first to compete will be Joan Antoni Moreno, who will do so in the C1 200.
Spain will also be represented by a selection of eight paracanoe athletes; The presence of Juan Antonio Valle, current world and European champion, stands out in distance from him. The rest of the team is made up of Adrián Mosquera, Adrián Castaño, Higinio Rivero, Araceli Menduiña, Inés Ma Felipe, Javier Reja and David Mella. All of them will seek a place for the Paralympic Games in Paris.