International Rafting Federation (IRF)

The Euro Cup 2013 Nis on the Nisava River was spoilt with two amazingly sunny days in what is often a cloudy and rainy Serbia. This is one of the few competitions where there is no entry fee required. This year we saw 4 countries and a total of 21 men’s teams and 8 women’s teams participating. Also, in this same contest, the University rafting competition was held for a second time.

The competition began with Slalom.

The course was perfectly set up and not easy for the beginners. And while several of them had worse second runs, some managed to improve from their first run. RK “Dayak” from Banja Luka, in the men’s category, lived up to the title of favourites and without a penalty in either run finished in first place. Behind them were the boys from KES “Vir”, Pancevo, Serbia, who received no penalty in the first run, but had a slightly slower time. Third was RT “Liman” from Zemun, Serbia, who received no penalties in the first run, but also had a slower time. There were no major surprises and the teams with more experience took the better positions.

In the women’s category the best was RT “Adventure Net” from Bulgaria, who received no penalty points in both runs (not surprisingly). Following them was “Reflip” girls, also from Bulgaria, and third place was RK “Kanjon” from Banja Luka, BiH, who in their second run showed what they can do, but not quite enough for a better placement.

The full Slalom results.

While the gates were being removed, the teams took some rest,  and then it was time for the Sprint in which there were some surprises, especially amongst the teams from Serbia.

Again, the RK “Dajak” from Bosnia, justifying their position of  favourites, won and were followed by the men’s team from RK “Adventure Net” from Bulgaria and third was KES “Vir”, of Serbia. The surprise amongst the Serbian teams was “Drinska Regata” who took second place at the national level.

The women’s category saw “Adventure Net” take first again, with RK “Kanjon”, Banja Luka in second place and “Reflip” Bulgaria in third.

The full Sprint results.

So now that the Sprint was done we had the ordered pairs for the H2H. The first round passed without any major surprises and favourites moved into the second round.

Winners of the men’s category targeted a great race line each time even if they were in a worse starting lane. They told me they selected a line and followed it every time. Maybe that brought them luck, we do not know, but first place was theirs against Adventure Net. The guys from “Drinska Regata” had a good result in the sprint and placed fourth after losing out to RK “Dajak” who placed third.

In the women’s category the battle for third place was exciting as RK “Kanjon” took the lead but the water dragged them to the right and team “Reflip” grabbed the opportunity to overtake and take third place. KK “Nikola Tesla” Zemun 1 had a surprise win in the semi-final and found themselves in the final against “Adventure Net” who were just too good for them.

The full H2H results.

These three events saw the completion of the first day. There were no flips and just one swimmer not far from the raft, but best of all was the beautiful sunny weather during the day.

Overall Results

Video

Photos

Article by Nada

The 3rd newsletter with important information for the 2013 World Rafting Championships in NZ in November.

If you haven’t already completed the Online Survey with your team’s intentions it would be greatly appreciated if you would do so as soon as possible.   This will assist with Event Planning.   Details and link are also in the newsletter.

Teams came from far and wide to compete on the Salza River at the annual Austrian International Rafting Championship and Euro Cup event. 11 nations, 10 women’s teams, 23 men’s teams and 5 Austrian teams!

Photo by Ingrid Grossauer

This is one of the most popular events on the racing calendar due to it being central to many teams with easy logistics, being well run and a great R4 river. And for many teams its a perfect location to catch up with friends that were seen either last year or at the last World Champs.

Rafting Team Kula from Croatia came blasting onto the scene with a win in the men’s Sprint, H2H and Downriver and a 2nd in Slalom making a convincing win for them. Mistral from Slovakia did a similar thing in the women’s to secure the overall win. BVS from Slovakia secured a second in the men’s with a win in the Slalom and VET Rock’s of Netherlands secured a third with a 2nd in the Downriver and consistent placing in the rest. Aquomania of Netherlands secured their 2nd place in the women’s with a victory in the Slalom and 2nd in the Downriver and Waterproof 1 of Belgium took 3rd with a consistent placing throughout.

The next Euro Cup event is Nis in Serbia from the 10 – 12 May and then each weekend after that sees another Euro Cup event – Durance, France (17 – 19) and then Čunovo, Slovakia (24 – 26).

There have been numerous other events happening around the world.

• In Brasil they had their R4 National Champs choosing their teams that will represent Brasil at the R4 WRCs which are being held in their home country in 2014 (Results, Photos: One,Two).
• The first Euro event was the Gumotex, Belgium event where they raced despite incredibly harsh weather! (Results; Photos; Video)  
• New Zealand held their Youth/ Junior Selections to choose the teams that will compete at the WRCs in November on their home ground (Results; Photos - Sprint; Slalom; DR.)
• The Czechs have held two Downriver Races at Jesenný (Results) and Plavy (Results, Photos: One,Two;)
• The Dutch held the first in their Open Series of 3 events (Results; Photos; Video: One; Two).
• The Euro Cup event in Croatia on the Korana was unfortunately cancelled due to a lack of international teams but local teams took advantage of the great water to still compete and have a fun event (Results; Photos: One; Two.)
• Chile held the Lippi Open Rafting where non-professional teams could also race and were given guides (Video: One, Two; Photos; Article).
• In Japan the Mitake Cup was held (Results, Photos; Video:Tk1, Tk2, GR1,Gr2,Cl9). 

Results, photos and videos can all be seen on the home page of the IRF website (left hand column).