Shortly after their final race in Tacen, athletes were already on the road enrouteto L’Argentiere, hosts of the next ICF Canoe Slalom World Cup. L’Argentiere is a sub-community of Pays desEcrins located in the Hautes-Alpes. The venue is the L’Argentiere Canoe Slalom Course which sits on the DuranceRiver and is used for kayaking, white-water rafting and other water sports. Thirty-seven nations from 5 continents areexpected to compete from 2nd to 3rd July, making this event one of the highest contested ICF events this season. Mostof the athletes that competed in Tacen have already arrived in l’Argentiere and have begun to train, emphasizing theimportance of these ICF World Cup series.
The World Cup season opener in Tacen, bore minimal surprises. In the Men’s categories most of the expectedwinners took home medals or just nearly fell out of a podium place, but In the Women’s categories, none of theprevious years’ World Champions gained a place on the podium!
There were a few notable faces that were missing at the first World Cup, namely Canoe Slalom’s rival athletes MichalMartikan (SVK) and Tony Estanguet (FRA); the fans will have to wait just a little longer to catch sight of these two asMartikan has taken the decision to skip the World Cups entirely and Estanguet, the newly crowned EuropeanChampion will only be joining the circuit in Markleeberg. When asked about his season preparation Estanguet said,"After four difficult years, I am really glad to be able to win the European championship (in La Seu de Urgell -Spain) to startthe new season. I need to focus now on the following races: the World Cup in Markleeberg, the test event in London and theWorld's. I will be motivated at the German World Cup because I've never raced in Markkleeberg and it is always interestingform me to discover a new slalom course. Afterwards, I look forward to paddling on the London Olympic course for the test
event and finally, I will focus all my energy in the September Cunovo's objective to obtain the Olympic quotas."
Confirmed and already training in L’Argentiere is another Men’s K1 personality Peter Kauzer. After his success last
weekend in Tacen, Kauzer made it on to the front page of all the national newspapers in his home country ofSlovenia. On the Women’s side, Jana Dukatova (SVK) is also in L’Argentiere; she had a great start to the seasonwinning a Silver medal in the European Championships, but she will be looking to put behind her 6th Place finish inTacen and re-emerge once again as a World Cup series contender this year. Speaking about her goals this seasonDukatova told the ICF, "My goal and focus this season are the Games. I want to be in good form in London at the endof July because this is when the Slovak team selection will be made for the Olympic Games. The Last time it wasvery difficult for me when I didn’t qualify, but I was competing for one place against Olympic Champion Elena Kaliskaand this time around it will not be any easier because I will be competing against double Olympic Champion ElenaKaliska, but I expect to be in good form and ready."
Corinna Kuhnle (AUT) and her teammate Violette Oblinger Peters equally had a sub-par weekend in Tacen, theformer placing out of a spot on the podium and the latter finishing 12th in the semi-final; both will be looking to revamptheir season’s campaign. We will be looking to Jasmin Schornberg (GER), to contend for a podium place inL’Argentiere as well as her teammate Tacen Gold medallist Melanie Pfeifer, who will be set on defending her positionon the rankings table.
In the C1 event, Great Britain’s David Florence conquered his competition in Tacen in one of the best finals of theevent, he will no doubt be looking to maintain his good form and challenge in this weekend’s World Cup. TheWomen’s C1 category continues to be dominated by the Australian ladies - Rosalyn Lawrence and Leanne Guineaboth topped the times of their challengers with a convincing Gold and Silver medal ahead of third place KatarinaMacova (SVK). They will continue to vie for their positions this weekend along with the new entrants that skippedTacen.
In Men’s C2 the "usual suspects" Hochschorners and Skantars of Slovakia were again at the helm of the podium inTacen, taking Gold and Bronze respectively. Biso & Picco (FRA) took 2nd place and will be expected to be seriouscontenders again in their home turf of France. The duo of Hu-Shu (CHI) was not in Tacen but are expected back inaction this weekend along with Stepanek & Volf (CZE).
Coverage of the finals will be LIVE on Eurosport with livestreaming on www.canoeicf.com.
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