For the first time in Rafting history Para-athletes are competing in a worldwide Rafting Championships.

Today rafters from 5 countries opened the event in Kiev with the Downriver, divided in 3 categories: R4 LTA (Amputee, Class 3: legs, torso, arms can work), Open Category (Visual Impairment Class B3, Hearing Impairment - Deaf athletes and Down Syndrome) and the Mix Category that combine different disabilities to challenge the Dnieper river from a new perspective.

The fastest raft stopped the Downriver chronometer winning the Amputee Category: Viktor Potanin (Rus), Denis Iaris (Rus), Igor Shovkievski (Ukr) and Salvatore Cutaia (Ita).

With 11.08.52 seconds they had almost a minute of advantage on the Amputee Silver: the Italian team of Massimo Giandinoto, Marco Montagna, Riccardo Novella and Rosario Sperandini (12.01.29 seconds: second best time of the day).

Three Paralympic rafters and one normo athlete formed every team of the Open Category: 13.49.85 seconds took Denis Konovalov, Andrey Galdin, Oleg Romanenka (from Russia) and Egoro Baranov (from Kazakhstan) to the first step of the Category podium.

For Andjela Pavlovic and Marina Ivanovic Kiev is the second World Rafting competition: the deaf team from Serbia competed for the first time in Kosovo one month ago at the World Cup; but in Zubin Potok they paddled in the only Para-Rafting team present. Now they are only two girls participating in Kiev and this morning, with Viktor Potanin and Denis Iaris from Russia, they took the deserved gold of the Mix Category (12.29.35 seconds).

It is no more a dream, but rather a real project, a new great adventure for our Rafting World and today was only the beginning.

Tomorrow the 9 teams will paddle through the gates: stay tuned for the Slalom!

Chile and Italy make progress, but the revelation crew of 2019 is Kazakhstan.

On 11th June the Munzur river hosted the RX for women and men teams who paddled the Tunceli Venue on Time Trial rafts for the qualification in the morning.

In the women category the best 4 times had straight access to the quarter finals: Russia 1 with 64,74 seconds, Italy 1 with 67,13 seconds, Italy 2 with 68,17 seconds and Chile 1 with 70,27 seconds, while the other 8 teams started the knock out phase. The straight fights led Russia 1 and Italy 1 to the final A and Chile 1 and Turkey 1 to the final B. The bronze has been finally conquered by Tabata Araya, Nicole Plagemann, Camila Ortega, Yarela Munoz and Constanza Molina (Chile 1) while the dowriver winners from Russia confirmed the first position also in the RX discipline: Ekaterina Kozhanova, Valentina Kozhanova, Tamara Chugunova and Vera Malahova won the last run against the Italians Francesca Leonardi, Alessandra Massimino, Dorothea Oberhofer and Marianna Tedeschi who took the Silver medal.

In the men category the best 8 times of the morning qualification had straight access to the eight finals: Chile 1 (60,78 seconds), Brazil (60,80 seconds), Turkey 3 (61,71 seconds), Russia 2 (62,24 seconds), Kazakhstan 1 (62,87 sec), Slovakia 1 (63,19 seconds), Italy 2 (63,58 seconds), Italy 1 (63,73 seconds). After the knock out phase that lasted the whole evening Maxim Zimin, Almas Bekbolat, Vitaliy Drobizov, Aleksandr Salynoyy and Damir Savandykov (Kazakhstan 1) has been crowned the RX World Champions. The hosts team Turkey 1 and Turkey 2 took the second position (Fatih Ozkan, Yavuz Sleim Ozturk, Cihad Er, A. Dogukan Yldirim and Muhammet Hacibekiroglu) and the bronze medal (Ibrahim Kuk, Mert Alper Sari, Emre Yilmaz, Ahmet Umut Sargin and Doganay Cinar).

The mix category (2 men and 2 women) saw on RX podium the Gold of Russia 1, the Silver of the team composed of 2 Chilean women and 2 Brazilian men who raced under the WRF flag and the Bronze of Chile 1.

The 12th June has been the last race day: 2 manches through the 14 gates in the Venue (6 upstream and
8 green gates) gave the last 80, 90 and 100 points to the Slalom discipline winners. The bronze medal has been taken by Chile 1 in the men category (Matias De Ferrari, Lorenzo Gomez, Diego Venegas and the the Chilean Federation President Cristian Huenchuleo) and by Russia 2 in the women category (Aleksandra Bychkova, Ekaterina Klimkova, Nadezhda Zhiriakova and Aleksandra Vinokurova).

The second position went to Russia 2 men (Aleksey Shirokov, Vladimir Kazanksiy, Nikita Zhuravlev, Ilya Lukyatsev).

The gold slalom of Brazil crowned Thiago Saldanha Serra, Thiago Diniz Barne Ganeo, Willian Ferraz, Pedro Henrique Avansi Aversa and Fabio Ramos Lourencao the Over All men Champions with 240 points in total. With 6 points less than Brazil, Kazakhstan 1 conquered the Over All silver and Russia 2 took the Bronze.

The 3 golds in the Downriver, RX and Slalom guaranteed the title of undisputed Over All Women Champions to Russia 1, ahead of Italy 1 (270 points conquered with 3 silvers) and Chile 1.

For the first time in Rafting history Para-athletes are ready to compete at the World Championship next weekend. 

Tomorrow, one year after the test event in Ukraine, rafters from Armenia, Italy, Kazakhstan, Ukraine and Russia will fly to Kiev and paddle the WRF disciplines on the Dnieper river: Downriver, Slalom and RX . 

The WRF Para-Rafting Worlds begins on Dnieper on Friday, October 11.

“The crews must be numerically composed of 4 athletes” told Oleksandr Bakanychev, President of the WRF Para-Rafting Commission, “in the R4 LTA (LTA means Amputee, Class 3: legs, torso, arms can work) the team must be composed of 4 LTA Amputee Athletes, whereas in the R4 OC category the crew must be composed of 2 disabled athletes and 2 able-bodied athletes”.

OC means “Open category” and the eligible Impairments: 

•Visual Impairment Class B3

•Hearing Impairment (Deaf athletes)

•Down Syndrome

Be young Be water is a worldwide rafting training camp organized thanks the collaboration between F.I.Raft, W.R.F. and the Italian Society CVA (Compagnia Valdostana delle Acque SPA).

From 28th July to 4th August 2019 Villeneuve (Aosta Valley, in the middle of the Western Alps), will host a Training Camp focused on young athletes (under 19, from 15 to 19 years) who will alternate river activities in the whitewater of Dora Baltea (management technique, operational safety exercises in the river, teamwork, sports leadership, operating methods and methodological exchanges between coaches of different countries for environmental education and water protection lessons,…) with trekking in the nature of the lateral valleys as well as visiting the Villeneuve hydroelectric power station and the main attractions of Aosta Valley (Bard Fortress and the Castles).

The number of places available is limited: 2 rafters per Nation, together with one coach, will be selected and registered by the National Federations and receive free room and board for a week near the 3rd/4th level river Dora Baltea, including the section that hosted the World Champs of the last year in the same period of flood.

The Tunceli downriver took place this morning in the upper section of the river where 3 teams every 6 minutes started the race from the natural upper section and paddled for half an hour in the rocky bends of Munzur until the finishline under the bridge near the Tunceli centre, where the Brazilian team composed by Thiago Saldanha Serra, Thiago Diniz Barne Ganeo, Willian Ferraz, Pedro Henrique Avansi Aversa and Fabio Ramos Louren stopped the chronometer after 23:02 minutes from the start. The downriver took 23:17 minutes to the second team, the Chileans Matias de Ferrari, Lorenzo Gomez, Diego Venegas and Christian Huenchuleo and the bronze medal goes to Italy, the last year U19 World Champions: Pietro Fratton, Zeno Martini, Fabio Martini and Lorenzo Mastella.

The gold medal of Woman has been conquered by Ekaterina Kozhanova, Valentina Kozhanova, Tamara Chugunova and Vera Malahova from Russia with 23:53 minutes, more than one minute less than Italy: Francesca Leonardi, Alessandra Massimino, Dorothea Oberhofer and Marianna Tedeschi took the second place paddling for exactly 25:00 minutes, with a final gap of 15 seconds to Tabata Araya, Nicole Plagemann, Camila Ortega, Yarela Munoz and Costanza Molina from Chile, 25:15, third place.

The last group of rafts was composed by Presidents of the National Federations and Head of Delegations: Danilo Barmaz, Fikret Yardimci, Christian Huenchuleo from Chile, Massimo Desiati from Brazil, Hadi Ghaziasgar from Iran, Rasto Zboril from Slovenia, David Katsarava from Georgia, the Indian delegation, Massimiliano Manfredi from Italy, Didier Lafay and Bruno Carlier from France who paddled with Tuncay Sonel, the Tunceli Governor, introducing him to our beautiful sport and showing him Tunceli city and Munzur valley from the natural point of view of the World of Rafting.

First day of the WRF Senior World Cup in Zubin Potok: teams from Serbia, Croatia, Italy and Bulgaria arrived this morning in the North Kosovo, in the Mitrovica district, ready for the first day of training.

Teams are hosted on the beautiful Gazivoda lake, near Ibar river.

At 3.00 pm official training will start - stay tuned on our social pages for more!

2 weeks after the World Championship 2019 in Tunceli, the local governor Tuncay Sonel confirms that the project Zero Waste, completely supported by the Turkish First Lady Emine Erdoğan, has been launched in Tunceli in collaboration with many institutions including the World Rafting Federation.

During the closing ceremony the Tunceli governor thanked the WRF President Danilo Barmaz and the Turkish Rafting Federation President Fikret Yardimci for the opportunity offered to the Munzur river.

The Zero Waste Programme is a strategic initiative to promote waste minimisation and pollution prevention projects in various sectors of the economy in Turkey and consists of four main components:

The semi-artificial venue that hosted WRF races from 8th to 13th June, built at the beginning of this year, contributed to the reclamation of a great part of the Munzur river: 80 kms are now clean and navigable, "inaugurated" by national athletes of 17 countries during the WRF downriver.

"500 days ago representatives from 15 countries founded the WRF in Belgrade, rafting lovers with a dream who came together from all over the world in order to create a new movement and make this amazing sport grow. I can't believe that in less than 2 years we organized such a big event, so I have to thank Fikret Yardimci, the President of the Turkish Rafting Federation, and the Tunceli Governor for the big help that gave to the WRF board in the last months. We are working hard and the hundreds smiles of athletes, coaches, technicians, volunteers, organizers, judges and all of the local people here confirm me that it is worth it. Teşekkürler to everyone, teşekkürler Tunceli. Enjoy the World Rafting Championship".

With these words the WRF President Danilo Barmaz declared opened the World Rafting Championship Senior - Turkey 2019. During the Opening Ceremony every Nation has been officially welcomed and presented to the other 16 countries, surrounded by the excitement of the local people who saw the preparation of this event evolving in the last months in parallel with the building of the semi artificial Venue.

Tomorrow morning the Munzur river will be inaugurated by Danilo Barmaz, who invited the Governor to paddle with him, the heads of delegations and the athletes in the downriver section, including Fikret Yardimci: "A warm thank to the Governor of Tunceli City Tuncay Sonel for the help that the city of Tunceli is giving to our Sport, your support has been fundamental and this event is an important step that will guarantee the progressive developement of rafting in our country and an increasing visibility to this lovely city".