[on behalf of Brandi DERKSEN, ICF]

The newly constructed Canoe-Kayak centre in St Pierre-de-Boeuf, near Lyon in France was the location this week for the ICFs technical test of the course layouts and competition format for the Youth Olympic Games in Singapore 2010. Aside from the occasional light rain, the weather was ideal for canoeing.

The event provided the ICF and observers from the Singapore organising committee with a valuable learning opportunity to fine-tune and understand how this new and dynamic competition will work next year in Singapore.
The new format sees individual athletes compete ‘head to head’ on courses that are situated within 100m of the finish line allowing spectators a good view of all the action.

Local French and Belgium athletes participated in the event, seeing this as a fine opportunity to try out the new Youth Olympic discipline and to further hone their canoeing skills. Local delegates from the municipality including the Town Mayor were there to show their support, alongside the family and friends of the participating athletes. With exemplarily co-ordination between the French Federation, the organising committee and the local clubs, this event proved to be incredibly successful with 39 youthful athletes participating in races of both Canoe Slalom and Sprint disciplines.

‘Due to the course characteristics this first technical test for the Youth Olympic Games Canoeing events has been not only a success but a source of useful information for the next step in the Games preparation. We have seen where both formats could be improved to make a better programme increasing the excitement of spectators and participants’ stated Jean Michel Prono, ICFs Canoe Slalom Chairman. He continued, ‘This type of competition is a really good experiment for the evolution of our sport especially from a sport presentation angle.’

Whilst for the ICF, the event was mainly technical in nature, for the athletes, it was a competition and the friendly rivalry was evident. The Canoe Sprint K1M was won by Adrien Vernet with an impressive time of 01:43.1; the K1W was won by Alice Schmitt in 02:06.1 and the C1M by Romain Gamory with a professional run of 01:55.3.

For Canoe Slalom, the K1M winner was Jimy Bercon in a blistering 01:16.9, the K1W was won by Elise Pierron in a very respectable 01:27.7 and the C1M was won by Antoine Runet with a great time of 01.26.5.

The testing wasn’t limited to the course or to the athletes personal goals however; the ICF also invited several boat producers to the event which provided a chance to test 8 new boat designs to give an effective comparison of their capabilities on the new courses. The youngsters performed in the different boats which allowed for additional information regarding the course and the performance characteristics of the boats to be gathered by the ICFs technical team.

The ICF Secretary General witnessed the test event and concluded, ‘This event is a big step in canoeing being demonstrated at the Youth Olympic Games. By testing the competition format and the courses we are really happy that they provide the possibility for some very close and exciting races’. Toulson continued, ‘We have questioned the athletes here, they really liked the fact they were competing head to head with their rivals and friends but they also the commented that they can watch the whole race and see who is winning and losing, both of these are major positive factors for this type of canoeing format’.

According to the ICFs Technical Director ‘The event was a great success which was due to the extensive co-operation and preparation done by the French Federation, the Canoe clubs from St-Pierre de Boeuf and the organising committee for setting up this test. I am very satisfied that everything came together seamlessly and that we have an exciting canoeing product for the youth.”

Having completed this successful test event the ICF will now finalise the course designs, choose the boats and complete the competition format ready for the upcoming Youth Olympic Games in Singapore in 2010.