News WRF

From 26th to 28th November the Nepal Rafting and Canoeing Association organised the 18th Himalayan Whitewater Challenge on Bhotekoshi River, East of Kathmandu. 16 teams participated and paddled the 4th level rapids of the Tibetan river (“bhoṭiyā" means Tibetan and “kosi” means river), the steepest whitewater rafted in Nepal with a an elevation source of 8012 m and a gradient of 15 m per km.

The first team to cross the finish line was KapileswarAmb, followed by Sindhu Parlatan and Balephi M Vidalaya and we’ll probably see athletes from these extreme teams representing Nepal in India at the Asian Championship of the next November: India 2020.

Vamos Chile! Yesterday was the first day of the National Championship at Los Quenes, Romeral, in the Maule Region, concurrently the Los Quenes River Fest: from 7 to 10 November the whitewater of Rìo Teno is selecting the rafters who will carry the flag of Chile in the 2020 international agonistic season.

The Silver team at the last WRF World Champs in Tunceli confirmed the National Gold in the Sprint, Men category: 1.19,75 seconds for Araucanos Rafting team formed by Christian Huenchuleo, Matias De Ferrari, Anand Heredia Valdes and Lorenzo Gomez.

1.25,60 for Chilean Adventures (second place) and 1.26,38 for Tricahue team (bronze).

With a gap of 2 seconds to Raitrai Team, Las Loicas team posted the best time of 1.31,87 in the Women category: Nicole Plagemann, Tabata Araya, Cony Molina, Yarela Munoz and Camila Ortega.

The unexpected and surprising best time overall of 1.18,28 seconds has been registered by Los Galacticos, the first Mix Team: Christian Huenchuleo, Matias De Ferrari, Yarela Munoz and Nicole Plagemann.

After the Sprint phase, the knock out confirmed Araucanos (men), Loicas (women) and Los Galacticos (Mix) the RX National Champions.

The athletes on the First step of the podium didn’t change for the second discipline in Rìo Teno that crowned Araucanos and Loicas also in the Slalom.

The Downriver is starting tomorrow, whose faces from Chile will we see at the 2020 WRF events? Stay tuned to read the names of the Overall Champions!

The WRF agonistic season is open! Argentina hosted the first event of the 2020 sport season: 16 teams participated in the PanAmerican 2019-2020 Rafting Cup held on 16th, 17th and 18th November, concurrently the National Kayak Championships. 

Torrentes team from Argentina won the gold with the home court advantage in the U23 Men Category, home called Ruka Choroy and Aluminé rivers (both 3rd/4rd level): Tomas Ermocida, Franco Zapata, Gaston Magaña, Arian Torres and Tomas Capelari.

The Open Men, Oper Women and Mix Category were taken by the one week old National Champions of Chile: Araucanos (Christian Huenchuleo, Matias De Ferrari, Anand Heredia Valdes and Lorenzo Gomez), Loicas (Nicole Plagemann, Tabata Araya, Yarela Munoz, Cony Molina and Camila Ortega) and Galacticos (Nicole Plagemann, Yarela Munoz, Christian Huenchuleo and Matias De Ferrari), selected at the beginning of November, seem ready for the 2020 season, especially for the Continental Championships that their country will organise next season.

Now it’s time to train, because the countdown to the Continental Champs is already started and Solkan 2020 is waiting for you all.

The World Champs of Para-Rafting are over: the RX discipline decided the first Overall Champions in history.

Iarysh Denis, Potanin Viktor (RUS), Salvatore Cutaia (ITA) and Igor Bondar (UKR) confirmed the 1st place in the Amputee category: the 120 points of RX gold guaranteed to them the Overall victory in the final against the Italians Giandinoto Massimo, Montagna Marco, Novella Riccardo and Sperandini Rosario (1.30-1.32.77 seconds).

The Open Category's RX final B was taken by Plotnikov Dmitry (RUS), Pavlovic Andjela, Ivanovic Marina (SRB) and Bedokurov Gled (UKR) (Bronze Overall). The final A confirmed the Overall results: gold for Romanenko Oleg, Konovalov Denis, Galdin Andrei (RUS) and Chemeris Yuriy (UKR); silver for Burakov Eduard (RUS), Ivanovic Marco, Ilic Milos (SRB) and Markovsky Illy (UKR).

Giandinoto Massimo, Sperandini Rosario (ITA), Konovalov Denis and Galdin Andrei (RUS) are the Overall Champions of the Mix category, winning the 3 different disciplines. The only two girls of the competition (Pavlovic Andjela and Ivanovic Marina) are on the second step of the podium (RX and Overall) with Iarysh Denis and Potanin Viktor (RUS). The RX bronze confirmed the Overall 3rd place for Novella Riccardo, Montagna Marco (ITA), Ivanovic Marco and Ilic Milos (SRB) who won the final B against Salvatore Cutaia (ITA), Igor Bondar, Markovsky Illy and Bedokurov Gleb (UKR).

Most of the athletes are competitors in other sports.

"My left foot has been amputated when I was 9" explains Massimo Giandinoto (winner of the Mix Category) "and since then I have been considering every day of my life as a challenge. At 26 years old I started running and filling my days with sport (He is a 100m and 200m athlete). 3, then 4, then 5 days a week until, training every day, I won the Italian title of 60m and 200m dashes. I first tried Rafting for fun but then the same happened: wearing the National flag is a dream come true; doing it with a team is something unique, paddling together literally in the same boat is priceless."

"And it is only the beginning" declares the WRF President Danilo Barmaz "These athletes are THE example of what "Always moving forward" means. A warm thanks to every person who paddled on Dnieper river and has been a part of this historic race, directed by the judges Mr Vladmir Petukhov from Russia and the WRF Vice-President Boris Purjakov".

It is definitely the beginning for the deaf team from Serbia: Andjela Pavlovic writes "Last July we first paddled in a river, we trained for 2 months and competed in Zubin Potok at the World Cup and we are happy about the results here. We are a volleyball team and we often participate in international tournment: now we train out of the water focusing on a match in Poland on 26 October, but we are looking forward to see what Rafting will show us."

Yesterday, on 13th November 2019 the WRF President Danilo Barmaz and the Indian Rafting Federation President Shaukat Sikand, in presence of the WRF General Secretary Matteo Benciolini, signed the agreement that officially designated India as the host organizer of WRF 2020 Asian Rafting Championship. 

From 7 to 11 October 2020 the small town of Manali, in the Himachal Pradesh state, will welcome the Senior national teams of Asia for the Continental title. The Beas river will be in flood after the summer rain, guaranteeing a 3rd/4rd level of whitewater, that in autumn runs fast down the green Kullu valley. 

Shaukat Pal Singh Sikand discovered rafting in December 1984, paddling on Gange during a historical expedition on the Indian sacred river. Since then he travelled around the world, starting from Oregon (USA), becoming the first Indian to be certified as a rafter, on Rouge river, to more than 50 countries visited exploring and competing in whitewater. Mr Sikand took part to a National Geographic project in South America and since 2017 is the Race Coordinator and Director of Expedition India, an adventure racing that challenges athletes from all over the world including mountain biking, trekking, rafting, rope work and orienteering. He is now the experienced President of the Indian Rafting Federation and is already working hard for a great whitewater event, in October 2020.