The Men's K1 field at Copenhagen
It’s not often that you see canoe marathons explained and the tactics outlined. In the UK, where marathon racing has declined in numerical terms at elite level over the years, the top division at the average divisional race does not see a packed start line and so tactics can sometimes be reduced to a simple matter of one person being a lot quicker than the other two on the start list.
Watching an international regatta 5km women’s event recently, viewers will have been struck by the apparently impressive sight of five paddlers racing head-to-head in a straight line, with no turn or finish in sight – has everyone really forgotten how to wash hang?
Anyway, rant over and hats off to Sportscene.tv, the terrific canoeing website, which has produced a really excellent write-up of the recent World Cup event in Copenhagen. The article explains the tactics in some detail, who did what and when, why, and how it worked out for them. Even better is their annotated photograph – how often have you seen a picture of racing action and wondered who was who or who was doing what (as explained in the write-up).
(Picture credit: Sportscene)
