MADRID, 15 May. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The international competition in Olympic slalom raises the curtain with the European Championship in Tacen (Slovenia) that starts this Wednesday, being a litmus test to see the current level of the paddlers who will represent Spain in the Paris Olympic Games this year. summer.
The four members of the team that will go to Paris will compete in this European Championship; Maialen Chourraut, Miren Lazkano, Pau Echaniz and Miquel Travé. Along with them, Nuria Vilarrubla, Laia Sorribes, Leire Goñi, Marc Vicente and Markel Imaz will also participate, making it the absolute debut of the last three.
Due to inclement weather, the European Championship will open with the individual Kayak Cross event, a non-Olympic discipline. On Friday there will be no competition while waiting for the river level to drop and the rest of the program will be left for the weekend: the C1 and K1 individuals and the team finals.
However, there will not be two races but a single descent, where the 12 best will go directly to the final. On Saturday from 10:00 a.m. it will be the turn for the K1 heat, at 2:08 p.m. the final and then, from 4:00 p.m., the team finals.
Sunday will be the turn for C1. The qualifying starts at 10:00 a.m. and the 12 best boys and the 12 best girls will start the final at 12:36 p.m. The patrol finals will begin at 3:38 p.m., with the competition expected to end at 5:00 p.m.
Maialen Chourraut (Club Atlético San Sebastián), Laia Sorribes (Club Náutico Mig Segre) and Leire Goñi (Club Atlético San Sebastián) will represent Spain in K1, with Goñi entering the Senior team for the first time. These three paddlers will also try to match, or even improve, the success achieved at the World Championships in London in September where they were proclaimed runners-up in the world team championships.
In the men’s category, the three paddlers who will compete in the K1 competition are Pau Echaniz (Club Atlético San Sebastián), David Llorente (Club Deportivo Río Eresma) and Miquel Travé (Club Cadí Canoe Kayak), the same trio that will compete in the test for teams and that last year in Krakow he won the European title in a spectacular event.
As for canoes, in women, Miren Lazkano (Club Atlético San Sebastián), Nuria Vilarrubla (Club Cadí Canoe Kayak) and Klara Olazábal (SD Santiagotarrak) will compete in C1. In the boys, the headliner is Mikel Travé, who will try to repeat the success of the last European in Krakow where he won the silver.
The other two Spaniards in the competition are Marc Vicente (Club Cadí Canoe Kayak) and Markel Imaz (Club Atlético San Sebastián) who in turn are attending for the first time with the Senior national team. These three canoeists will also try to achieve success in the team event.
The Kayak Cross competition, which will open the Championships, will begin with the women’s downhills, with Maialen Chourraut, Miren Lazkano and Laia Sorribes, our representatives. In the men’s category, those who will compete in this event will be David Llorente, Pau Echaniz and Manuel Ochoa (Club Deportivo Miño Os Teixugos).