POZNAN – Competitions of the 4th World University Canoe Sprint Championship are starting tomorrow in Poznan but the venue of the wonderful Malta Lake was of course very busy. CIC member Fernando Parente was busy to check all the accreditations of the 23 countries that will attend the competitions. The delegations were training hard on the water and as expected the level of the WUC will be very high. As previously told one week ago, the World Championships were taking place here and some of the athletes have stayed in between both competitions. Nevertheless, out of the 23 countries expected (Australia, Belarus, Brazil, Chile, Czech Republic, Estonia, France, Hungary, Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Mexico, Moldova, Poland, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia and Ukraine), many world class athletes (recent medallists of the World Championships) will take part in the FISU competition despite a very heavy year schedule – this is the reason Germany does not take part in the competition. The interest is very high because canoe-kayak is very popular in Central and Eastern Europe. Just for the record – but we will come back in depth later on the level of the event – you have to know that the Hungarian silver medallist of the last World Championship in K1, Ninetta Vad, as well as the Russian bronze medallist Pavel Petrov are part of the program as well as may other finalists of last week’s World Championship.
The CISCA members under the lead of CISCA Chair Oleg Matytsin have been checking the accreditation center, the accommodation and the restaurant of the Athletes’ Village before having its traditional meeting at the end of the afternoon. Just after this, the General and Technical meetings were held with members of the OC and all the delegations taking part in the competition. The draw was also done before the Opening Ceremony that has concluded a very busy day.
Opening Ceremony
Held on the venue, the Opening Ceremony was held in presence of the Mayor of the city of Poznan Ryszard Grobelny who has opened officially the 4th World University Canoe Sprint Championship. All the CISCA members and the Polish EC member Marian Dimalski have attended the event. Under a very gray sky – but the rain did not fall even if it was quite threatening and it has fallen during the previous hours – the 23 countries could enjoy a very short artistic part performed by the Metrum Team before joining their accommodation for a very fruitful sleep before the qualifying heats tomorrow. Competition can start!
(Source: Marc VANDENPLAS, FISU Summer Universiade Director)
CISCA Chair Oleg Matytsin
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