Olympic champion Ricarda Funk leads the squad of German slalom canoeists for the European Championships in Liptovsky-Mikulas, Slovakia. “Let’s get ready for the international racing season,” wrote the 30-year-old on Instagram after the first training rides on the competition track. The European Championships are considered to be the toughest test for the home World Cup in Augsburg from July 26th to 31st.
In addition to Funk, the successful Olympic team of the German Canoe Association (DKV) will also include bronze medal winners Hannes Aigner, Sideris Tasiadis and Andrea Herzog 285 kilometers north-east of Bratislava. A total of twelve German slalom canoeists will be taking to the white water. Preliminaries and team competitions are scheduled for Thursday and Friday, the individual finals are planned for Saturday and Sunday.
Since the World Cup season does not start until mid-June, the European Championship is also the first international comparison of the season. At the beginning of May, the German team secured starting positions in four qualifying races. For kayak specialist Funk it is about confirming her dream year 2021. She won gold at the Olympics, World Championships and European Championships and showed enormous human size with her triumphs with moving messages to her home town of Ahr Valley, which was badly hit by the floods.
“For me, the European Championship is the first highlight of the season,” said Tasiadis. But as with all Germans, the training control is clearly in the direction of the home World Cup. Herzog starts out a bit weak after a cold. She will therefore “focus on driving the route technically well so that she can still achieve a good time,” said the 22-year-old.