MINSK, 28 July (BelTA) – The 2016 ICF Junior & U23 Canoe Sprint World Championships have gathered athletes from 67 countries. The tournament will run at the rowing course in Zaslavl from 28 to 31 July, BelTA has learned.
The cycling ground of the multi-purpose sport and entertainment center Minsk Arena hosted the opening ceremony of the championships on 27 July. The ceremony was attended by Executive Director of the Belarusian Canoe Association Sergei Shablyko and First Vice President of the International Canoe Federation (ICF) Istvan Vaskuti. The ICF official expressed hope that many of the participants of this year's Junior & U23 Canoe Sprint World Championships will compete in the 2020 Summer Olympics. Istvan Vaskuti thanked the Belarusian Canoe Association for financial assistance and the organization of the tournament.
The Belarusian team comprises 47 athletes, including reigning world and European champions and medal winners. In June, for instance, Belarus' Nadezhda Makarchenko and Yelena Nozdreva won C2W 500m at the 2016 ECA European Canoe Sprint Championships in Moscow. The tournament hosted by the Krylatskoye Olympic racing course was also successful for Gleb Solodukha and Alexander Volchetsky who were the best in men's C2 200m.
Darina Pikuleva, Kamila Bobr, and Alexandra Grishina will compete in the large-scale sports competition in Zaslavl, too. All in all, partaking in different events of the world championships will be over a thousand athletes from 67 countries.
The first sets of medals will be decided on 30 July. The closing ceremony will be held on the last competition day, 31 July. The flag of the world championships will be passed onto the organizing committee of the 2017 ICF Junior & U23 Canoe Sprint World Championships that will be hosted by Pitesti, Romania.
