Belgian Championship AKA MavaMania2k20

MavaMania is the yearly highlight of the Belgium freestyle scene. The one and only freestyle competition organized in Belgium. While you might consider the Belgium freestyle scene to be very small, you would be surprised by the amount of people showing up for the Belgian Championship!

The organization succeeds incredibly well at engaging every skill level during these events. They’re running the regular freestyle and boaterX competitions and next to it, they organize a bunch of fun events. Max loop contest (do as many loops as you can in one minute), riverboard surfing, freestyle clinics, etc.

This year due to the pandemic it was a MavaMania light edition. With most competitions being cancelled over whole Europe, we were expecting the worst for the Belgian Championship. Luckily the organization comité, managed to pull it together and organize an edition in rule with all the current Covid measurements! Unfortunately, this meant that most of the fun events had to be cancelled to ensure that the social distancing was maintained. So, no boaterX, SUP or riverboarding this year.

This didn’t mean there was any less fun though! The stoke was high to have at least one event going down this year where people got to paddle together and shared their experiences from the past summer. There were about 50 paddlers present to enjoy the atmosphere and compete for the national title in freestyle kayaking, it promised to be very exciting!

After the prelims the results were tight and everything was still possible for the finalists. It was a great mix of newbies, veterans and returning powerhouses. It’s amazing to see that the Belgium Freestyle scene living during this period!

The finals where incredibly exciting with a couple close calls. In the end most of the Belgian Champions prolonged their title for another year, but the competition is definitely starting to close the gap on them! We’re curious to see what happens the next few years!

Shoutout to the organization of MavaMania2k20 for their awesome job and hard work during challenging times!
Massive thank you to Servaes Timmerman from www.outdooranimation.be for the pictures!

Full results

Juniors:
1. Axel Carré
2. Jean-Louis Bare
3. Lennert Crols

Seniors:
1. Lane De Meulenaere
2. Tom Dierick
3. Piet Santermans

Veterans:
1. Sven Joos
2. Michel Vito
3. Michel Leirs

Women:
1. Jill Joos

C1:
1. Florentin Abel
2. Victor Hennin
3. Axel Carré