The canoe specialists return to Portugal eight years later

Montemor-o-Velho already hosted the FISU World University Championship Canoe Sports back in 2016 and is ready to once again welcome the best student-athletes on its waters from 21-24 August.

This is the second time that Portugal’s National University Sport Federation (NUSF) of Portugal, , organises the FISU World University Championship Canoe Sports. But this event is also the 16th FISU World Championship hosted by this very active NUSF.

Located in central Portugal, the municipality of Montemor-o-Velho belongs to the district of Coimbra. It is part of Baixo Mondego, a privileged region for tourist destinations with great cultural, historical, scenic, sporting and social value.

Opened in 2002, the High Performance Sports Centre in Montemor-o-Velho is designed to accommodate canoeing, rowing, open water swimming and triathlon and is part of the Portuguese Network of High Performance Sports Centres.

The sports and categories

Canoe Sprint: There are three groups (men, women and mixed), five categories (Canoe 1, Canoe 2, Kayak 1, Kayak 2 and Kayak 4) as well as four distances (200m, 500m, 1000m and 5000m).

Canoe Marathon: Two groups (men and women), two categories (K1 and C1). The distances are 20 km for K1 men, 16 km for K1 women; 16 km for C1 men and 12 km for C1 women. Each country is allowed to register two boats per gender and two boats for each category.

The participants

More than 200 student-athletes from 24 countries and three continents have registered for the event and are eager to “paddle with passion and compete like a champion” to perfectly illustrate the event’s motto.

The programme (all times are in GMT)

20 August (9h30-20h):
Canoe Sprint (official training session and GTM)
Opening Ceremony

21 August (9h30-19h):
Canoe Sprint (200m/5000m) – Heats, Semi-Finals, Finals

22 August (9h30-19h):
Canoe Sprint (1000m) – Heats, Semi-Finals, Finals

23 August (9h30-16h30):
Canoe Sprint (500m) – Heats, Semi-Finals

24 August (9h30-18h30): Canoe Sprint (500m) – Finals
Marathon
Closing Ceremony

You can follow all competitions live on and find all the information you need, results and pictures in the event’s . Good luck to all the student-athletes who are competing in Montemor-o-Velho!

Written by Thérèse Courvoisier