In mid-August the world’s finest and most talented canoe sprint athletes will compete at this year’s ICF Sprint World Championships at the picturesque and iconic location of Szeged, Hungary.
Ninety-two nations have entered the Olympic qualification competition which is a new record in the canoe-kayak sport. More than 1300 athletes will compete, with a squad of 28 Australian athletes in contention for this year’s event.
Teams have already started arriving at the venue with Japan the first team to arrive yesterday, and more to follow soon. The Australian team are currently training in Szolnok, situated two hours’ drive north of Szeged, where they have been training as a team since last Sunday, following the arrival of the female athletes, who spent the past month training at European Training Centre (ETC) in Varese, Italy.
2010 World Cup medallist Jo Brigden-Jones said, “It is great to be back in a good team environment with only two weeks out to World Champs.” “The mood in the camp is really positive, where all training hard and looking forward to competing at World Champs.”
Next Wednesday the men’s K2 200m team will be confirmed for the World Championships following at best of three race-off, with Western Australian Institute of Sport duo Stephen Bird and Jesse Phillips, going head to head with Queensland’s Joel Simpson and Matthew Urquhart as the battle for the final spots in the team intensifies.
Also representing Australia at the World Championships, is 2011 World Cup gold medallist Alana Nicholls, who will compete the K1 200m and 500m events.
-Canoeing Australia
