Czech canoeists gained the control of the World Cup

VIDEO  The first day in the canoe slalom World Cup Troja ended up being extraordinarily succesful for Czech canoeists – each one of them is going to participate in the semifinals in every single category. Except for canoe double, Czech paddlers always gave the lead to the qualification – Vavřinec Hradílek and Irena Pavlíková in kayak competition, and Kateřina Hošková and Stanislav Ježek in single canoes.

„It is a fenomenal success and a great beginning of the races. And I'm glad that I could have entertained the spectators,“ said Vavřinec Hradílek, who performed some fancy bits during his second heat, since it was for sure that he would participate in the semifinal. „However, tomorrow it will be completely different race,“ admits Hradílek without underestimating his rivals.

Even the performances of his colleagues suggest that Czech canoeists are in the game for not a few medals. Quite stable efforts are to be seen in the olympic game winner Štěpánka Hilgertová and her son Luboš Hilgert (both kayak competitors), and Tomáš Indruch (canoe single). Those three are sure to entry into the medal action.

However, every single celebrity is going to také part in the semifinal as well. Therefore, despite of all the today success, the competition will be hard. There was only one surprise, when bronze medal winned from Beijing Benjamin Bougpeti (Togo), dropped out of races just because of 7 hundreths.

„The race will be on a wide scale since tomorrow. I hope that spectators will come to encourage our reprezentatives,“ invokes Jiří Rohan, the director of the organizing committee.

The main programme of the World Cup continues tomorrow at 9 a.m. With canoe single men and women and then men kayaks. The final of this categories will taka place at 12.20 a.m. On Sunday there will be women kayaks and canoe double (semifinal starts at 9.30 a.m., final at 12.05 a.m.).

Spectators can look forward not only to dramatic races, but even to accompanying events (for instance they can bet on the results in the Tipsport office here, they can try bungee trampolines, climbing, or art workhops for children.

The entrance fee is just CZK 50,-, children, seniors, and handicapped have the free entrance. For more info, have a look at our websites : www.slalomtroja.cz

You can see photos here.