Australia’s future paddling stars will take on Asia Pacific’s sprint paddlers at the inaugural Asia Pacific Sprint Cup to take place at Adelaide’s West Lakes Regatta Centre Friday, 11 May – Sunday 13 May 2018.
The inaugural event will see 136 junior and developing canoe sprint athletes compete in the Under 17, Under 18 and Under 21 age groups. The event is the result of an international collaboration between Australian Canoeing, Canoe Racing New Zealand and the Japan Canoe Federation following joint discussions to create an event for developing athletes.
In its first edition, six countries will be competing at the Asia-Pacific Sprint Cup in Adelaide, including Australia, Japan, Singapore, New Zealand, Tahiti and Cook Islands.
“This new event is an exciting racing opportunity for our up and coming athletes and for some of our athletes it will be the first time competing at an international event,” David Foureur, National Pathways Lead for Australian Canoeing said. “It also is a great benchmark event in the lead up to the Junior and U23 World Championships and it’s great to see the Asia Pacific region working together on this.”
Australia will be represented with the biggest team of 42 athletes, including the 2018 Junior World Championship team, who are utilising the event to continue their preparations for the 2018 ICF Junior World Sprint Championships at the end of July in Plovdiv, Bulgaria.
“The Asia Pacific Cup is a great opportunity for us younger athletes to gain international experience before stepping up on to the world stage. We have a group of experienced coaches to guide and assist us with our physical and mental preparation, enabling us to grow as paddlers and race at our best,” U21 athlete Joanna Charles from Varsity Lakes Paddlers Club in Queensland said.
“It’s a great stepping stone and pathway for younger athletes in their racing experience and will allow us to develop our skills in an international competition,” U21 paddler Sam Hutchinson (Avoca Kayak Club, NSW) added.
The Asia – Pacific Sprint Cup will take place annually during the first two weeks of May with New Zealand hosting the event in 2019, Japan in 2020 and Australia again in 2021 on a rotational ongoing basis. The Asia-Pacific Sprint Cup is open to any country. In the first few years it is expected that the largest national teams will be from Australia, New Zealand and Japan, who have already committed to the event. The event is expected to grow in the future and to become an International Regatta of increasing quality and recognised by the International Canoe Federation.
Each participating country will send National Teams reflecting the U16, U18 and U21 structure and races will be held in each age category over Olympic race distances with a maximum of three entries for the men and women’s K1/K2 per country; two entries for the men and women K4 per country and one entry for relays per country.
Racing will commence on Friday, 11 May 2018 from 8:00 a.m. and will conclude on Sunday, 13 May at 11:45. See event program here: http://paddle.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Asia-Pacific-Cup-Program-as-at-180503.pdf
Event webpage: http://canoe.org.au/events/asia-pacific-cup/
See all teams here: http://canoe.org.au/events/asia-pacific-cup/#1521002034111-4c90f260-d135
See the full Australian team here: http://paddle.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/2018-Asia-Pacific-Team-Announcement.pdf
Follow live results here: http://bit.ly/AsiaPacificSprintCup18
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