A challenging slalom course was set on the Vrbas River for the WRC 2022 rafting athletes of the world. One has to admit, Slalom under the lights is pretty special and the BiH WRC Organisers turned it on and night racing was a go!

The course was challenging to all teams at all levels but the top teams pulled out all their skills, tactics and strengths and rose to the challenge, as expected.

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The Head-to-Head (H2H) is all about tactics, with a pinch of luck! The day was filled with many tussles as the teams tried all they could to outsmart their opponents in the race to get around the two buoys they’d chosen and to get across that finish line first.

The first step was to get a good start and reach the rapid first. Some pairs entered the rapid right next to each other making it an interesting ride!

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When the racing concluded today at World Rafting Championships 2022 the local Master’s Men’s team from Bosnia and Herzegovina were proudly displaying the gold medals they won in Sprint, and the bronze in Head-to-Head (H2H).

The victorious crew consisted of: Igor Kuzmanović, Dragan Bjelić, Nebojša Tadić, Andrej Zamolo and Goran Pašić as a reserve.

In the Sprint they came first across the finish line in 73.14 seconds and surpassed the Brazilian national team, which was only 0.78 seconds behind.

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Follow the live blog

The best place to follow World Rafting Champs 2022 is on the live blog worldraftingchamps.com/live

That is where you will find announcements like start lists, results, etc, as well as where to find livestreaming if it is available for that day, plus snippets of the action through pictures, short videos and posts.

We’ll be posting there all through the action, as well as putting provisional results there and anything else that may be of interest to teams and those following from back home.

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The last time the Hungary Open Women’s team were in Banja Luka they won a Silver medal in Sprint in Euro Rafting Champs 2019. So they are happily looking forward to returning to this great location for World Rafting Champs 2022.

Multi-talented

In the team competing at this World Championship they have rafting guides and athletes racing on flatwater and in slalom kayak. Their team has achieved various results, some are multiple World and European Champions, every one of them has national titles in Hungary in multiple disciplines and they also have a World Games medalist among them!.

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Soon rafters from around the world will be racing together again on the Vrbas and Tara Rivers in Bosnia and Herzegovina! First they will be gathering in Banja Luka and then Foča in the Republic of Srpska. After a three year break from World Rafting Championships everyone is itching to get there and enjoy what is on offer!

Besides racing, the teams, officials and supporters will also want to enjoy what is on offer in the region.

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The Mandala Team are five friends hailing from the Mendoza region of Argentina and ready to represent their country as the Open Women’s team. The team is made up of Agua Leiva, Pascua Pithod, Antonella Urbina, Daniela Maldonado and Denise Martinez.

They all got into rafting in their adolescence. At the moment they are all rafting guides and kayakers. They have all individually (with other teams) participated in the Argentinian Rafting Championships, Pan-American and World Championships in Argentina, Costa Rica and Dubai.

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The Junior Men’s team for the event in Bosnia and Herzegovina consists of 4 of the original 6-man team from WRC 2019, Liam, Justin, Cooper & Jacob – the AUS CROCS!

The team originally came together in September of 2017 after they heard that Australia would be the host of the World Rafting Championship 2019 in Tully. Cooper and some of his mates were keen to see what the training consisted of and quickly found that the river was a great place to be.

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Dajak Klub are keepers of the Banja Luka traditional Dajak boats, and this year they have two local teams at this, their local World Rafting Championships. They are competing with an Open Men’s team and a Masters Men’s team. In the Open Men’s team it is Dragan Babić, Igor Studen, Dejan Markovic and Djorđe Trninić. In the Master’s Men it is Igor Kuzmanović, Andrej Zamolo, Nebojša Tadić and Dragan Bijelić.

The club was founded with the aim of preserving the tradition of the local Dayak boats.

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The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) officially accepted the IRF as a signatory of the WADA Code in October last year. This historic step is in alignment with the IRF’s strategy of making rafting a more officially recognised sport in the international sporting world.

The IRF is unequivocally opposed, on ethical and medical grounds, to the practice of doping in sport. The IRF fully supports the position of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) against the use of banned substances and methods.

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Today, 24 candidates started their training for the IRF Guide Training & Education (GTE) raft guide qualification as part of the support that USAID BiH Sustainable Tourism Development Project has provided to the hosts of the 2022 World Rafting Championships (WRC). Following the course, all candidates will get the unique opportunity to support the official safety team of the 2022 World Rafting Championships.

The IRF extends our gratitude to USAID BiH for their support to the development of raft guides in Bosnia & Herzegovina, and also as one of the key partners to this year’s World Rafting Championship.

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The Croatia U19 Men’s team is part of the Kayak Canoe Club “Rastocki Mlinari”. They are situated in the small city of Slunj which is located on three rivers: Mreznica, Korana, and Slunjcica, and all of them are great for water activities such as kayaking and rafting. Most of their training though is held on the Korana River in the village of Rastoke, where there is a beautiful natural slalom course with difficult class II-III.

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Sue Liell-Cock was a part of the IRF founding group who met in Augsburg, Germany in May 1997. She became Secretary General in 1998 and has been holding that position since then, working with three Presidents – first Peter Micheler, then Rafael Gallo and now Joe Willis Jones.

We spoke to Sue to find out more.

Short history of your rafting experience
I spent most of my guiding time in two-man Indian canoes doing 6-day trips up on the Orange River (Class 2/3) which is on the border of South Africa and Namibia.

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Quebec Juniors team are heading to World Rafting Champs 2022. So who is this new under 23 womens’ team from Canada?

The team is composed of five girls from Quebec City aged 19-22.  It was formed in the summer of 2019 by a former national team athlete during her pregnancy.

• Béatrice Provencher is studying to become a police officer. She has been rafting with the team since the beginning and is now a whitewater rafting guide on the Rouge River in the province of Quebec.

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Team RAFA is made up of young athletes from the town of Turrialba – Marcelo Omodeo, Sergio Jiménez, Enrique Segura, and Jose Contreras are the ones to be racing at WRC 2022.

Marlon Bustos started the team in 2016 and after his first race was noticed by Rafa Gallo for the great work he was doing with the team. Rafa quickly took these kids under his wing and helped them compete in a number of different competitions and probably the most important being their friendship competitions in Rafa’s Remando por la Paz – Rafting for Peace project in Colombia.

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