Rowing slalom in kayaks and canoes
Rowing slalom is the discipline of kayaking and canoeing, overcoming the speed of a distance marked by a gate: a section of a rapid river or an artificial track (the water flow rate must be at least 2 m/s).
Depending on the length of the distance, the number of gates, the speed of the current, etc., the tracks are divided into 5 categories of difficulty. Competitions are held on tracks 250-400 m long with 18-25 gates and difficulty, as a rule, no higher than the 3rd category.
The gate consists of two milestones hanging from a horizontally stretched cable, painted in white-green (“straight gate” — should go downstream) or white-red (“reverse gate” — should go upstream) colors. The gates are numbered in the order of their passage (the numbers are indicated on special signs above the gate).
For passing the gate with errors, a penalty is added to the final time:
• 2 seconds — for incorrect passage with touching the hangers with a boat, paddle or any part of the body;
• 50 s — for skipping the gate, passing the gate in the wrong direction or in an inverted position.
The height difference on the rowing slalom track should be from three to six meters. The section of the water flow in the rowing slalom includes various obstacles. These include riverbed turns and drops, so-called “catches”, “shafts” and “barrels”, as well as stones.
The International Canoe Federation is engaged in the development of rowing slalom in the world. The first competitions recognized by the FCI were held in 1933 on the Aare River in Switzerland. The first World Championship was held in 1949. Rowing slalom was included in the Olympic Games program in 1972, after which it was excluded; it has been included again since 1992.
In the Soviet Union, this sport appeared in the 30s of the last century in the Caucasus. It grew out of tourist rafting, in which the main thing was to survive by passing a boiling river. To diversify the alloy, gates were hung in more or less safe areas. It was proposed to take the green gates downstream, the red ones against. The track began to pass at speed.
Official competitions are held in the following boat classes:
• K-1M (single kayak) men
• K-1W (single kayak) women
• C-1 (single canoe) men
• C-2 (two-man canoe) men
• C-1 (single canoe) women – included in the World Championships program since 2010.
There are also team races in each class (the team consists of 3 crews).
Only individual races in 4 classes of boats are held at the Olympic Games.
No one will reach the finish line without swimming, without reading the water correctly. This concept in slalom is one of the key ones. Because the athlete correctly determined the trajectory of the current, its strength in certain areas, how clearly he saw the boundary of the counterflow and the main jet – his maneuverability, speed, and therefore the result at the finish depend on all this.
Public Association ”Belarusian Canoe Association““
Address: 18-2 Pobediteley Ave., Minsk, 220020, Republic of Belarus,
Phone: +375 (17) 202-45-01, fax: +375 (17) 202-45-00
Website: http://canoeing.by/
Minsk city organization of the public association “Belarusian Canoe Association”
Address: 18-1 Pobediteley Ave., Minsk, 220020, Republic of Belarus
Phone: +375 (17) 202-44-91, fax: +375 (17) 202-42-80
Chairman: Latushko Viktor Ivanovich, phone: +375 (17) 202-44-91, +375 (29) 384-76-74
Deputy Chairman: Bykovsky Igor Evgenievich, phone: +375 (29) 649-05-50
Secretary: Larisa Vasilyevna Bortnitskaya, phone: +375 (17) 202-44-29
Specialized educational and sports institutions that develop rowing slalom in Minsk :
Educational institution “Minsk City State School of the Olympic Reserve” of the Minsk City Executive Committee Department of Sports and Tourism
Address: 42 Sedykh str., Minsk, 220103
Phone: +375 (17) 281-41-33
The director is Leonid Stanislavovich Babko
The institution “Specialized Children’s and Youth School of the Olympic Reserve in Aquatics” of the Department of Sports and Tourism of the Minsk City Executive Committee
Address: 18 Pobediteley Ave., Minsk, 220035
Director – Latushko Viktor Ivanovich
Phone: +375 (17) 202-44-29