U23 & JUNIOR WORLD RAFTING CHAMPIONSHIPS 2018: AN INCREDIBLE FIGHT TO CONQUER THE WORLD TITLES
Villeneuve and Ivrea has hosted 40 teams competing in the 3 World Rafting Federation disciplines: downriver, slalom and RX, on the Dora Baltea river. Many surprises in the italian Valle d'Aosta and Piemonte regions led the
young athletes tuned not only about the results.
26th July 2018 - Athletes from 13 nations will remember this WRF Event thanks to the withewater, the adrenaline of the competition and to the international feeling of sharing a passion. This event confirmed the WRF intention to focus on young athletes, working to see them at the Olympics in the future.
After the first two traditional races of Downriver and Slalom the last one was a new spectacular discipline called RX, officially born in order to impress the public. It is composed by 2 parts: the first one is a qualification phase who's times will decide the starting position of the second knock out phase, where the couples fight in a direct elimination. It has been a race full of surprises.
Mix teams
The 2018 WRF's innovation are the mix teams: only in the new entry category RX there are 2 boys and 2 girls on the raft, creating an innovative perspective of team. The U19 mix has
been conquered by the Italian hosts, after them Czech Republic and Turkey. Same nations took the u23 podium, but 1st Turkey, 2nd Italy and 3rd Czech.
Italian hosts won 3 golds in the general ranking. The 4th and last one was taken by the Czech u 23 women team, that beated Italy and Russia with an amazing show of team spirit.
World Rafting Spirit - International teams made by Armenia, Turkey, Russia, Ukraine, Albania and Serbia closed the races under the flag of wrf, that is working on the Olympic project and hopes to see some of this amazing guys in the future Games.
On the occasion of the World Championships, the WRF launched its TALENT IDENTIFICATION PROGRAMME (TIP) (/documents/rules/wrf-rafting-development- programme-draft/viewdocument), by involving an international team composed of athletes coming from different developing countries (Croatia, Chile, Czech Republic).
Did you miss the live streaming on Planet Canoe? Check it out here
RX - Knock out phase (https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=_Dqc2nyRfzE)
A special thanks to: the town of Villeneuve, the department for tourism, sport, commerce and transports of the Regione Autonoma Valle d’Aosta, the Valle d’Aosta regional council, the International Canoe Federation (I.C.F.), the World Rafting Federation (W.R.F.), the Italian Rafting Federation (F.I.Raft), Piemonte and Valle d’Aosta Italian National Olympic Committee (CONI), Rafting Aventure in Villeneuve and Ivrea canoa club.
Supporters of the event are Albino Armani and Enervit. Albino Armani (http://www.albinoarmani.com/) is a big fan of paddle sport and motorbike. Together with his winery, he has been encouraging for a long time many sports initiatives of international relevance.
At the Ivrea World Champs the energy was supplied by Red Bull (http://energydrink- it.redbull.com/).
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Photos (https://www.dropbox.com/sh/csntkhejdubykom/AAA6nethwlTSVlMFuu9BPLlZa? dl=0)
