European cup round up

August 15, 2007

By Jon Best

The 2007 European cup was held in 3 different countries situated in 3 different locations around Europe.

The first was held in the beautiful ski town of Lienz, Austria. A challenging hole brought many different European nations to battle it out for a head start in the series.
British, French, German, Austrian, Czech, Slovakian, Polish, Finish and Swedish were amongst the competing nations. The competition went well, and everyone was very grateful for the friendly welcome and hospitality.

The Second leg of the series was held in the north of Sweden on the Palt wave. An awesome braking wave which allowed all the moves in the book. The river reminded me very much of the Ottawa with sweet rapids in between beautiful still lakes.
The competition was tough, seeing some great rides from the locals, the Polish and the Fin’s. I hope to see more competitions held on this spot in the future, all the guys did a great job in organizing the event considering the hard logistics of the venue.

The last competition in the series and also the Pre European Champs and was held in Galicia, Spain. The competition was held on an interestingly sticky hole at the bottom of a very impressive Dam. The event was not the best I have been to, and all the paddlers did very well to put up with the lack of organization (none), a shame as this competition was set to show case the spot for the European Championships 2008.

All in all the European cup went well, seeing some amazing displays of skill from Peter Csonka, Nina Halasova, James Bebbington, and many more. Check out the pics.

The final results for the European cup are as follows:

K1 men:
1st Peter Csonka (SVK)
2nd Jon Best (GBR)
3th Jan Spindler (CZE)

K1 women:
1st Nina Halasova (SVK)
2nd Maria Lindgren (SWE)
3th Ingrid Schlott (GER)

K1 junior woman:
1st Hanna Vackova (CZE)
2nd Flick Mears (GBR)

K1 junior man:
1st Jiri Langer (CZE)

C1 :
1st Lukas Cervinka (CZE)