The ICF Canoe Sprint World Cup series commences from Montemor-o-Velho, Portugal on Friday with five WAIS athletes set to feature.
It is the first of three World Cups which will run back to back over consecutive weekends, with World Cups to follow in Germany and Denmark.
Racing will commence on Friday from 4:30pm Perth time (9:30am local time),with more than 300 athletes from 28 countries set to feature.
Australia will be well represented with 20 athletes set to test themselves against the world’s best including five WAIS athletes in the form of; Jesse Phillips, Stephen Bird, Brodie Holmes, Alana Nicholls and Jaime Roberts.
The 200 metre men’s events are set to feature on the opening day with the Olympic pairing of Jesse Phillips and Steve Bird set to contest the K2 200. Joining them to fly the Australian flag in a new look boat will be Brodie Holmes and Callum Dunn.
Bird and Dunn will also double up in the K1 200 event.
The inclusion of an additional K2 200 boat looks set to drive the competition standards within the Australian ranks this year, a factor that Phillips suggests would bear fruit for all athletes involved.
“Callum Dunn came over in early April joining the three of us WAIS paddlers so it has been a great advantage for creating healthy K2 competition leading into World Cups,” Phillips said.
“It pushes up the level of each session with more boats on the water. Swapping combinations in K2 is always a little bit intriguing in seeing how different paddlers combine their skills, and it can also reinforce the reasons why some combinations work better than others.”
Team boats will be the emphasis for the Australian women with Olympic quotas up for grabs at the World Championships in August.
Australia will also field two women’s K4 500 crews with Alana Nicholls and Bernadette Wallace joining Brigden-Jones and Flood, while Bull and Burnett will be joined by Cat McArthur and Jaime Roberts in a second crew.
“From a girls team perspective these two world cups are being used as a bit of a trial run leading into the World Championships where we are trialling a few different combinations in both the K2’s and K4’s to ensure we are putting the fastest boats on the water come August,” Burnett said.
Nicholls and McArthur will be the only two Australian women to race individual events and will line-up in the K1 500 heats on Friday morning.
Nicholls in particular will be one to watch as she returns for her first World Cup event in three years.
The Western Australian appears to be back to her best after a dominant display at the National Championships saw her win four gold medals.
She will be out to match her World Cup performances during the 2011 and 2012 seasons when she won six medals, three each year.
-CanoeingAus
