Canoe Sprint World Championships

Milan 2015 is approaching fast and a multitude of people have been working night and day to bring the ship into port.There is only one goal at the horizon: August 19, the first competition day!

Day by day all Nations are confirming their participation , providing the Organizing Committee with their Sprint and Paracanoeing entry forms.At the moment, one thousand one hundred thirty-eight Delegates have been entered.

One-hundred-seventy-four are Paracanoeing Delegates, with sixty-six being Paracanoeing paddlers.This is an outstanding number of Delegates entered in the first Paralimpic Canoeing qualification event. Forty-two Nations have confirmed their partecipation.

If we consider that four hundred and fifty days are still to go, the largest attendance at moment has been recorded by:

Russia with 75 members; Hungary (72), Spain (70).

While, England is leading the Paracanoing attendance with 28 Delegates , followed by Brazil (21) and Russia (19).

We are obviously expecting that all countries will now try to increase their entries in order to bring the best teams in Milan .

The Australian paddlers , for example, are competing in some selection races;paddlers such as Olympians Murray Stewart and Alana Nicholls, who dominated their events, have been obvious already selected.

National High Performance director, Richard Fox, said picking an extended squad gives selectors a chance to try different combinations for different events.

“It’s not a bad problem to have, having several athletes in the mix for positions on the team,” he said.

“We’ve got the flexibility and the depth to experiment with some of the categories.”