Penrith hosts major canoe slalom events

By Noel Rowsell

The 2023 Canoe Slalom Penrith Open will be held at the Penrith Whitewater Stadium on the 11-12th of February, featuring Men’s and Women’s divisions in Kayak, Canoe and Kayak Cross.

Racing commences at 8.15am on Saturday morning with Kayak heats, followed by Canoe heats through to 10.25am. Sunday’s Kayak and Canoe Finals begin at 7.30am and run through to 10.45am, followed by Kayak Cross from 4.30pm to 7pm.

Individual performance at this event will contribute to selections of the Junior, U23 and Senior 2023 Australian Canoe Slalom Team.

The weekend’s events will feature 28 x Kayak women, 44 x Kayak men, 14 x Canoe women, 28 x Canoe men, 31 Kayak Cross men and 16 Kayak Cross women eleven countries will be represented at the event, including Australia, New Zealand, France, Ireland, USA, hungary, Lebanon, South Africa, Mauritius, Morocco and Japan, with the latter comprised of a big delegation which are planning for a long stay, thereby bringing major tourism benefits into the local economy.

Top ranked athletes include Tokyo Olympians Jess Fox, Lucien Tinkler and Dan Watkins, along with the entire 2022 Australian Senior, U23 and Junior teams. International paddlers include Olympic medallist Luuka Jones (NZL), Marjorie Delassus (FRA) - 4th in C1W in Tokyo in 2022 Olympics and ranked 8th C1W, evy Leibferth (USA) - ranked 13th C1W, Camille PRIGeNT (FRA) - 4th in 2022 World K1W and ranked 6th K1W, Takuya haneda (JPN) - bronze Rio 2016 C1M.

The 2023 Australian Open will also be held at the Penrith Whitewater Stadium the following weekend, running from 17th19th February.