After the RX qualifications from yesterday the men category will finish the World Rafting Championship 2021 tonight.

The knock out phase started this afternoon, without the 7 teams who got the best 7 times who will access directly to the phase 2 tonight at 21: Italy 1, Italy 2, Croatia 1, Chile 1, Russia, Turkey 1 and Argentina.

Phase 1 saw 18 teams paddling in the Stade d’eau vive Michel Baudry, and the 9 of them who won this knock out will paddle in the phase 2 tonight.

Slovenia 2 (Bulgaria 2 out), Slovenia 1 (Chile 2 out), Croatia 2 (Malta 2 out), Slovakia 1 (Morocco out), Turkey 2 (Albania out), Bulgaria 1 (Netherland 2), Netherland 1 (Montenegro out), Colombia (Belgio out) and France 1 (Serbia 1 out) are the 9 winners from Phase 1.

Knock out Phase 1, RX, Men team

These 9 winners of the phase 1 and the 7 teams with the best time in RX qualification will face the round of 16 at 21.30 tonight.

RX discipline can change the partial rankings awarding the podium with 120, 108 and 96 points.

The leading team is currently Italy 1, followed by the teammates from Italy 2. Provisional bronze to Russia. Argentina is close got the podium with just a 4 points gap and fifth provisional position is detained by Croatia 1.

Tonight we will have the first World Rafting Champions.

A fresh afternoon on 30th June, in the Stade d’eau vive Michel Baudry, saw more than 50 teams paddling in the 400m whitewater venue for the RX qualification.

Based on the these times, the athletes will compete on Friday and Saturday in the knock out phase, that will crown the RX Champions with 120 points.

Italy 1, Women team

In the women category Italy 1, with Letizia Lauri, Elodie Lumignon, Gaia Mascarello and Carlotta Scalvino, crossed the finish line with the best category time of 1’00.61.

Second time, one second away from the the first team, to Italy 2 who stopped the clock at 1’01.82: Martina Bonomi, Christa Gruber, Francesca Leonardi and Miriam Waldboth. Third time for Chile that closed a provisional podium with just a 2 seconds difference from the first (provisional) step: Nicole Plagemann, Tabata Araya Soto, Costanza Molina and Camila Ortega Ilancafilo from Chile 1 with 1’02.62.

Italy 1, Men team

The first three men teams are in a gap of less than 50 cents: Italy 1 (56.19) with Pietro Fratton, Fabio Martini, Zeno Martini and Lorenzo Mastella, ahead of Italy 2 (56.46) with Michele Pattoglio, Dario Morandi, Francesco Regina and Giordi Sarteur and Croatia 1 (56.55) with Danko Herceg, Luka Obadic, Tomislav Hohnjec and Jadran Zonjic and Ivan Tolic.

France 1, Para Rafting team

Para Rafting category saw the France 1 team put down a great time of 1’00.22 after a clear run in the venue: the fastest Abel Aber, Latimier Latimier, Hugo Latimier and Benjamin Pillerault, were just one second ahead of Italy 1 (1’01.92) with Riccardo Novella, Marco Montagna, Carlo Benciolini and Nicola Speri. Third time for Italy 2 (1’05.17) with Massimo Giandinoto, Rosario Sperandini, Damiano Casazza and Rinaldo Veneroni.

 Chile 1, Mix team

Mix teams closed the race day with an incredible time of 59.82 by Chile 1: Yarela Munoz, Camila Ortega Ilancafilo, Ivan Correa and Paz Letelier.

The hosts from France 1 followed with a very challenging gap: 1'00.20 for Cyril Audoit, Marion Delorme, Kevin Gix and Coralie Yebenes.

Just a tenth of a second later we have the third time of Netherland: 1’00.30 for Kiki Roeling, Jenita Gobel, Xandar Van Os, Roel Bakker and Mark de Wit.

Olympian and Peace and Sport Ambassador Marlène Harnois

The IOC member and AIOWF President Ivo Ferriani, the President of the International Federation Sport Climbing Marco Scolaris, the FFCK Rafting Director Bruno Carlier awarded the Downriver Champions at the award ceremony in the evening, in the presence of the WRF President Danilo Barmaz, the major of L’Argentière-la-Bessée Patrick Vigne and the Peace and Sport Ambassador Marlène Harnois.

The World Rafting Championship 2021 has begun. The last teams are arriving in L’Argentière-la-Bessée and we are proud to announce that our partner Peace and Sport will be present during the whole racing week. As we always said, sport is not only about chronometers and medals, it is a way to meet other people and share experiences, to learn and grow.

Peace and Sport supports the 2021 World Rafting Championship

Founded in 2007 by Modern Pentathlon Olympic Medallist and World Champion Joël Bouzou, Peace and Sport is a neutral and independent worldwide organization that promotes peace through the power of sport.

In less than 10 years, the dynamism of sport has already enabled us to reinsert child soldiers back into society, to help war orphans rebuild their self-confidence, to reintegrate refugees, facilitate access to education, and more. As the Peace and Sport ambassador and Olympic Champion from Burundi Venuste Niyongabo explained us last week, in an interesting online meeting with WRF, sport is a means of improving international cooperation and raising awareness on the other’s viewpoint.

Raising #WhiteCards in L’Argentière-la-Bessée

The symbol that we now share with Peace and Sport is a white card. As a reference to the yellow and the red card in the sporting world that usually represents penalties, a white card invites not to punish but to promote peace.

We think that rafting, as a team sport, is a perfect tool for social inclusion and our athletes are raising the White Card symbol near the rivers now, becoming part of this great movement. Everyone can also contribute by joining the Peace and Sport Programmes following this link:

Slalom day in L'Argentière-La Bessée on 1st July: 4 categories paddled 2 runs that awarded the podiums with 100, 90 and 80 points for the 1st, 2nd and 3rd best time (first or second manche).

Women, Men, Para Rafting and Mix teams faced 10 challenging gates in the Stade d’eau vive Michel Baudry: 6 green gates (downstream) and 4 red gates (upstream).

The penalties, especially in the upstream lines on gates 1, 3, 4 and 9, made the difference in the two manche. 

The touches in the 2 manche changed the provisional podiums after the first run, where many teams didn’t risk it all in order to get a clean run with 0 penalties and a valid time. The second manche saw the overall podiums changing.

Italy 2, Women, Slalom winners

In the women category the Slalom winners are Martina Bonomi, Christa Gruber, Francesca Leonardi and Miriam Waldboth, who got the silver in the Downriver: Italy 2, after a 50 seconds penalties in the first manche, got 0 penalties in the second run and the best category time of 134,39, almost 10 seconds ahead from the other Italian team.

The compatriots from Italy 1, who dominated the first manche with a touch in gate 10 (5 seconds penalty), run a clean second descent that improved their slalom points and assured Letizia Lauri, Elodie Lumignon, Gaia Mascarello and Carlotta Scalvino a second place, 143,58.

Bronze medal to Chile with 153,76: no touch and almost one second less than the fist run (where they had two 5 seconds penalties on the red gates 1 and 4): Nicole Plagemann, Camila Ortega Ilancafilo, Yarela Munoz and Tabata Araya Soto. 

 Italy 1, Men, Slalom winners raising the WhiteCard of Peace and Sport

Also the men category rankings changed 2 times during the slalom day.

Italy 1, Fabio Martini, Zeno Martini, Pietro Fratton and Lorenzo Mastella, won the second manche and got the best category time with 117,10, 

2 seconds of advantage on Nikita Zhuravlev, Vladimir Kazanskiy, Vladimir Ananev and Ilya Lukyantsev from Russia, second place with 119,49 and a clean run.

A gap of 2 cents away from the silver medal gave the third place to Italy 2, with the time that was leading in the first manche ahead of Argentine:  119,51 for Dario Morandi, Francesco Regina, Michele Pattoglio and Giordi Sarteur.

 France 1, Para Rafting, Slalom winners

The hosts got their first gold in the Para Rafting category with an incredible time (the ninth in total) of 131,44 in the second run: with 0 penalties in both the runs Abel Aber, Latimier Latimier, Hugo Latimier and Benjamin Pillerault from France 1 are the World Para Rafting Champions of Slalom.

Second place for Italy 1, with the best time in the first manche: 149,84, with one touch on the last red gate: Marco Montagna, Riccardo Novella, Carlo Benciolini and Nicola Speri.

Third place for Italy 2 with 157,05 and no penalties in the first manche: Massimo Giandinoto, Rosario Sperandini,Damiano Casazza and Rinaldo Veneroni.

 France 1, Mix, Slalom winners

Last but not least France 1 doubled the Slalom gold in the mix category: Marion Delorme, Coralie Yebenes, Cyril Audoit and Kevin Gix. With 134,60 and 0 penalties they lead the first and second manche.

2 seconds more for Chile 1: 136,80 in the second manche gave the silver to Camila Ortega Ilancafilo, Yarela Munoz, Ivan Correa and Paz Letelier.

Third place for Sara Amonini, Valentina Volo, Nicholas Gheno and Mattia Felini from Italy 1 who stopped the clock on the best time in the first run: 139,38, with 1 penalty on gate 4 during the first run.

Colombia Rafting team

The most dynamic discipline is starting this afternoon and will award the RX winners after the strategic knock out phase.

First day of race in France: the 3 kms Downriver opens the competing part of the week, with the start in the Durance gorge with 20 cubic meters per second. The water flow doubles with the Gyronde tributary in L’Argentière-la-Bessée, reaching 43 cubics per second in the Stade d’eau vive Michel Baudry. 

The first team who started paddling and opened the competition is the same who got the gold. Downriver Champions in the Women category are from Italy 1: Letizia Lauri, Elodie Lumignon, Gaia Mascarello and Carlotta Scalvino stopped the chronometer on 12’37.21. Second place to the compatriots from Italy 2: Martina Bonomi, Christa Gruber, Francesca Leonardi and Miriam Waldboth with 12’44.95. Chile, with almost 10 seconds of gap from the winners, got the bronze with 12’48.99: Nicole Plagemann, Tabata Araya Soto, Costanza Molina and Camila Ortega Ilancafilo.

Durance river 

The man category awarded Italy 1 with the best time overall: 11’47.03 for Pietro Fratton, Zeno Martini and Fabio Martini, Lorenzo Mastella.

With a gap of 5 seconds Italy 2 won the second place: Dario Morandi, Michele Pattoglio, Francesco Regina and Giordi Sarteur followed their compatriots with 11’52.99.

The third place in the Downriver goes to South America: Juan Martin Martinez, Denis Orlando Gelves, Mauro Solano and Matias Maximiliano Cordero brought the bronze medal to Argentina. 

Para Rafting

Para Rafting brings, for the first time, Para athletes paddling in the same section of the normo athletes, into III level rapids.

Gold to Italy also in this category: Italy 1 with 12’43.01 composed by Riccardo Novella, Marco Montagna, Carlo Benciolini, Nicola Speri, 20 seconds ahead of France 1 (13’03.81) who got the silver:  Abel Aber, Latimier Latimier, Hugo Latimier and Benjamin Pillerault. Back to Italy for the third place: Italy 2 with Massimo Giandinoto, Rosario Sperandini, Damiano Casazza and Rinaldo Veneroni (13’10.83).

MIX TEAMS: 2 women and 2 men

Last but not least, in the mix cathegory, 1 second of advantage assured the first place to Sara Amonini, Valentina Volo, Nicholas Gheno and Mattia Felini from Italy 1, with 12’28.24. 12’29.49 for Netherlands: Jenita Gobel, Kiki Roeling, Xandar Van Os, Roel Bakker and Mark de Wit.

Italy 2 closes the mix podium with 12’30.55: Francesca Fontanive, Silvia Venturini, Michele Songini, Riccardo Colombo.

First discipline gone and awarded the first, second and third teams with 80, 72 and 64 points.

Despite the challenging situation due to Covid-19 restriction, after two years without WRF worldwide competitions we finally arrived at the day before the World Rafting and ParaRafting Championship 2021.

For the first time in history athletes and para athletes will compete in the same rapids, at the whitewater stadium in L’Argentière-la-Bessée, France.

Rafters and Para Rafters will paddle in the same rapids

The stade d’eau vive Michel Baudry was inaugurated in 1993 and is 400m long, with a difference in altitude of 4m.

The French Alps of the Pays des Écrins will host more than 200 athletes this week in the alpine river Durance, from 29 countries. A few teams are still on the road, or on the plane, but everything is settled for a week of race.

Stade d'eau vive Michelle Baudry

Before the World Championships begin We would like to take the opportunity to thank our athletes for being here: the Covid-19 pandemic forced all of us to take important choices and everyone who will paddle and take part in this competition made many sacrifices in order to be here. The hard work that everyone faced over the last months, and usually goes unnoticed during the period of preparation, will be expressed now.

This week is a chance for the athletes to show that they deserve to be here, especially to themselves, and enjoy what they deserved. They trained and they decided to travel, although the uncertainty times and now they have the opportunity not only to race, but to meet and share a new adventure with people from all around the world who have their same passion.

Sport is not only about chronometers, it unites us, and we are honoured and proud to welcome you all, finally together. The athletes are arriving and tomorrow is the beginning of a new adventure.

Photo: Eric CAUSSE

Second day of event at L’Argentière-la-Bessée and everyone is finally arrived on Durance river: 226 athletes from 19 countries are now in the French Alps and started the official training in the II-III level rapids.

Downriver training, 3kms finishing at the Stade d’eau vive “Michel Baudry”

The Downriver race will be 3 kms long and is scheduled for tomorrow morning as the first competition of the event, but the stream is going to raise tomorrow.

This morning the teams, divided into 2 groups, tried the last 2 kms of the Downriver, that includes the Slalom and RX course as the final part.

Tomorrow morning the teams will scout the first part, 1 km long, of the river, before the start of the competition.

Slalom training

This afternoon, after the Downriver training, the rafters paddled in the Stade d’eau vive “Michel Baudry”, trying the possible run of the Slalom race.

The number of the gates will be official on the race day, so the teams can paddle studying the possible combinations of green (downstream) and red (upstream) gates.

The possible gates’ number is between 10 to 15, while almost 50 gates are usually settled in the slalom course for canoe training.

Opening ceremony in L’Argentière-la-Bessée

28 men teams, 9 women teams, 13 mix teams and 5 Para Rafting teams finally attended the opening ceremony, raising the White Card, becoming part of the Peace and Sport movement that promotes international cooperation through the power of sport.

The opening ceremony in the centre of L’Argentière-la-Bessée saw the major Mr Patrick Vigne, the FFCK Rafting Manager Mr Bruno Carlier and the WRF President Mr Danilo Barmaz welcoming the athletes in the center of the village, in presence of the Peace and Sport Ambassador, the Olympian Marlène Harnois, who raised the White Card with the rafters, a symbol of peace and international cooperation through sport.

White Card raised by the rafters at the World Champs

The 2021 World Rafting Championship is officially inaugurated, and tomorrow morning the first paddle strokes will open the Downriver: eyes on Durance!

From 18th to 20th June Zubin Potok hosted the European Rafting Cup 2021 in in the Mitrovica District in Kosovo.

20 teams participated in the event and paddled on Ibar river, that flows from Gazivoda Lake.

The first place in the three disciplines, RX, Slalom and Downriver, gave the overall gold to Italy 1 in the men category: Luca Liuzzo, Giacomo Schettino, Matteo Lancillotto e Alberto Longo. A third place in the slalom and two silvers in RX and Downriver guaranteed 262 points to Italy 2, that got the second place: Andrey Orsingher, Emanuele Boiano, Tommaso Patriarca and Luca Gianoli. Third step of the podium for NSK Liman from Belgrade who scored 248 points.

In the female category Italy 1 got a first place in Downriver and Slalom, that with a second place in the Final A got the overall gold: Giulia Liuzzo, Vittoria Sperandini, Rubina Boscia ed Emma Ichino with 288 points.

The  RX winners got the silver overall: Italy 2 represented by Federica Triangeli, Natalia Lehmann, Alessia Tiberi e Marika Branchini.

Third step of the podium for RK Advance team, third in every discipline.

The attention now goes to the upcoming World Rafting Championship: eyes on France!