​And here we are again, two years after the last R4 Euro Rafting Champs which was in Cunovo, Slovakia. Teams are gearing up once again to compete for the title of the best teams in Europe. They’ll be facing each other in Straža, Slovenia from the 16 to 25 May 2016 where they will paddle Sprint, H2H and Slalom on the Tacen artificial course near Ljubljana and then the Krka River for the Downriver.

Since 2012 the ERC R4 and R6 have been separated to run in alternate years. With the addition of the Youth and Masters divisions it became too big and long to do both at the same time, and this also aligned the event with the World Champs schedule. The ERC event is a great opportunity for the European teams to measure up the other forces and to familiarize themselves with the competition that awaits them in the WRC. ERC R4 2012 was also different in that it was only for U19, U23 and Masters.

To read more about R4 ERC 2014 in Slovakia take a look at these articles:  Day 1; Day 2; Day 3; New Euro Rafting Champions; Mistral Slovakia – Open Women’s R4 Euro Champions; Heavy Machinery Hiko Rafting Team – Open Men’s R4 Euro Champions.

Countries that took medals at the R4 ERC 2014 are: Latvia, Turkey, Slovenia, Italy, Netherlands and Britain with Czech, Russian and Slovakia taking the most between them.

So who are the title holders from R4 ERC 2014?

In the Youth age groups it is often the case that the same competitors cannot defend their titles as they have moved up into the next age group. But in the Open and Masters we often see the same teams with the majority of the same competitors in it as were at the previous ERC.

Open Men – the Hiko team reigns supreme on the throne of R4 champions having been the champions for the last few years, setting a record with 1000 points at the R4 ERC in 2012, and narrowly losing to Brazil who had home ground advantage at the R4 WRC 2014. With CZE1 Masters team taking 1000 points at the R4 ERC 2014 we can see the Czech teams are a dominant force.

Open Women – we see that it is SVK1 and GBR1 that were on the podium the most. CZE1 were crowned champions in 2012 and then were dethroned by SVK1 in 2014 who will be going to Slovenia as defending champions.

But let’s not build up too much pressure and rather bask in all Slovenia has to offer.

We hope we’ll be seeing a greater number of female teams in the U19 and the Masters Women’s division. And it would not be bad to have the same sunny days as was had in Slovakia in 2014.

We wish them all good stroke, folks!