Ivrea, in the Turin area, will host the 'Paddle Europe Slalom Championships', the European canoe kayak championships, from Thursday 24 to Saturday 26 September. The programme was presented this morning in Turin, at the Piedmont Region skyscraper. A delegation from the Italian national team was present: the newly crowned 2026 World Cup winner in K1, Xabier Ferrazzi (Carabinieri Sports Centre), the leading C1 athlete Raffaello Ivaldi (Navy Sports Group) and the newly crowned Italian champions Marta Bertoncelli (C1 discipline, Carabinieri Sports Centre) and Stefanie Horn (K1 discipline, Navy Sports Group), along with the canoe slalom technical director of the Italian Canoe Kayak Federation, Daniele Molmenti.
184 athletes representing 28 nations are expected in Ivrea, competing in the three canoe slalom disciplines: men's and women's kayak, men's and women's canoe, and men's and women's kayak cross. The Ivrea canoe stadium, on the Dora Baltea river, is among the most technical and challenging courses in the world. The absolute novelty of this edition is that for the first time the European title will be awarded in a night-time event. The races will be broadcast live on Rai Sport.
"Ivrea confirms itself as a great capital of freshwater sport," said regional governor Alberto Cirio. "Piedmont welcomes the European canoe-kayak championships with tremendous enthusiasm, an event that brings the absolute excellence of the discipline to the evocative setting at the foot of the Serra moraine and among the Olivetti sites that are UNESCO World Heritage sites."
Great ambitions for the Italian squad, as confirmed by Antonio Rossi, president of the Italian Canoe Kayak Federation: "Our athletes have been protagonists in all competitions and I am certain they will do everything possible to be so on home waters as well. Ivrea will be yet another occasion on which we can demonstrate the organisational capacity of our movement and our country."
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