Although the waters are calm, Speed Canoeing still offers intense emotion. A competition that unfolds in a straight line, often decided by a tiny margin of time;
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All about Speed Canoeing: history of the sport
With the need for communities to move around, the first boats emerged over time. Reports indicate the use of similar means of transportation in Egypt around the 15th century BC.
Some scholars even suggest that the Aztecs, in the third century AD, already employed a primitive form of rowing;
In the 16th century, light boats, built from wood and animal skins, were developed to navigate the rivers of Canada, with canoes being used by the indigenous peoples and kayaks by the Eskimos.
In nineteenth-century Europe, boats known as Greenlanders became popular among the population, becoming used not only as a means of transportation, but also for leisure.
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The sport of canoeing began when the Scottish lawyer John MacGregor undertook expeditions on rivers and lakes in Europe aboard his own kayak, the Rob Roy, which he made himself, in 1840;
The Royal Canoe Club, founded in 1865 in the United Kingdom, was the first club dedicated to canoeing. The International Canoe Federation was established in 1924, taking responsibility for organizing global competitions.
In the 1970s, kayaks imported from Europe and Argentina, made of fiberglass, began to arrive, representing a novelty at the time;
In Brazil, the development of the sport began in 1984, with the introduction of the first official boat models. That same year, the Rodrigo de Freitas lagoon in Rio de Janeiro hosted the first official Speed Canoeing competition.
The inclusion of canoeing and kayaking as Olympic disciplines took place at the Berlin Games in 1936. Until the Mexico City Games in 1968, canoeing consisted only of speed competitions;
Although the terms “canoe” and “kayak” represent distinct vessels both etymologically and in form, in other countries canoeing associations generally adopt a name around the word “canoe”;
This is evident, for example, in the British Canoe Union and the Deutscher Kanu Verband. However, the term “kayak” is also commonly used.
The Brazilian Canoeing Confederation (CBCa) was founded in 1988, with four affiliations;
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All about Speed Canoeing: specifications and categories
Nowadays, most kayaks are made of polyester resin and fiberglass, although there are options with epoxy resin and carbon fiber, as well as polyethylene models.
Divided into four parts, the kayaks have the bow at the front, the stern at the back, the port side on the left and the starboard side on the right.
The competitions are held on rivers or lakes, divided into nine lanes, with distances varying between 1000, 500 and 200 meters.
Speed canoeing, practiced in both kayaks and canoes, is essentially a competitive sport;
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Held in calm waters, either on rivers or lakes, the competitions take place on nine marked lanes, covering distances of 1,000, 500 and 200 meters. The event begins with qualifying rounds to determine the semi-finalists and finalists.
In a kayak, the paddler sits down and uses a two-paddle paddle. In a canoe, the paddler rests on the floor of the boat with one knee and uses a single paddle;
Categories
The different classes of boats follow the standards established by the International Canoe Federation:
- K1: individual kayak, with a maximum length of 5.20 m and a minimum weight of 12 kg.
- K2: kayak for two people, with a maximum length of 6.50 m and a minimum weight of 18 kg.
- K4: kayak for four people, with a maximum length of 11 m and a minimum weight of 30 kg.
- C1: individual canoe, with a maximum length of 5.20 m and a minimum weight of 16 kg.
- C2: canoe for two people, with a maximum length of 6.50 m and a minimum weight of 20 kg.
- C4: canoe for four people, with a maximum length of 11 m and a minimum weight of 50 kg.
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All about Speed Canoeing: rules of the sport
Competitors in canoeing take part in individual events, in pairs or in teams of four athletes;
The simplicity of the competition could lead someone to believe that this sport has a fairly straightforward set of rules;
According to the official committee, the objective is simple: athletes must reach the end of the race as quickly as possible within the designated lane.
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All about Speed Canoeing: the difference to slalom canoeing
Now that we’ve understood the simplicity of the rules of speed canoeing, it’s time to explore slalom canoeing.
This sport has been part of the Olympics since 1972 and has its roots in slalom skiing, which is popular in Switzerland. It was there, in fact, that slalom canoeing was conceived.
Unlike speed canoeing, slalom has rods placed in the middle of the course that cannot be touched. These obstacles are called gates, gantries or poles;
The races can be up to 300 meters long and the athletes face rapids, which is more challenging than speed canoeing.
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All about Speed Canoeing: curiosities
- The coach of the Brazilian speed canoeing team from 1994 to 2004, Zdzislaw Szubski, a Pole, has earned himself a place in the Guinness Book of Records. His feat was to row alone for 24 consecutive hours over a course of almost 300 km on the Vistula River in Poland in 1987. Zdzislaw is the father of Sebastian Szubski, who represented Brazil at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, competing alongside Sebastián Cuattrin.
- In Seoul, 1988, Australian Grant Davies was initially declared the winner of the K1 1,000 race, but his victory was contested just 11 minutes later. The organizers announced that American Greg Barton had crossed the finish line five thousandths of a second earlier, which equated to less than 1 cm difference.
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