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2024 ECA SUP European Championships

SUP European Championships. When? Where? Who? What? …. These where the questions i had few months ago. Same time as i gathered all the information i though it would be wise to gather all the information in one article.

ECA (European Canoe Association)

Most of the SUP Racing community have probably never heard about ECA, me included before few months ago.
The European Canoe Association (ECA) was founded on December 11, 1993. If i understand correctly ECA was founded because ICF (International Canoe Association) stopped organizing European Championships when World Championships started running every year. So in short ECA is an association that organizes European Championships to different paddling disciplines. Most if not all European ICF National Federations are members of ECA. Visit ECA website for more information.

SUP European Championships. When and Where?

2024 ECA SUP European Championships will be held 12-16.6 in Szeged, Hungary.

The 2,400-metre long, 122-metre-wide regatta course is located two kilometres south
of Szeged. Being an artificial course, current is not an issue here and it is quite well
sheltered from strong winds as well. It is equipped with a new Albano system and has
nine lanes along with a separate warm-up line. There will be electric time keeping with a
photo finish camera and video recording. Automatic starting system will be used for the
start. The facility fully meets the ECA requirements.

So conditions will be really easy. No beach start or finishes.

Could not find any good photos of the race venue. Only few YouTube clips from competitions held there.

Who can participate to SUP European Championships

  • The competition is open to anyone who complies with the rules and regulations of the
    competition.
  • Membership in an ECA (European Canoe Association) National Federation is not a
    requirement to participate in the competition.
  • The first year an athlete can compete in an ECA competition is the year of their 15th birthday
    (ICF Rule 1.4.1)

So the competition is open to anyone who is turning 15 this year or older.

Disciplines

Official disciplines are Sprint, Technical and Distance.
Also and unofficial 4,5km inflatable distance race.2

Open MenOpen Women
Sprint200m200m
Technical1000m1000m
Distance9km9km
Official SUP Disciplines
Open MenOpen Women
Inflatable4,5km4,5km
Unofficial SUP Disciplines

All distances will very doable to different level of paddlers. I’s brilliant that the organizers have included the biggest board class of all, inflatables.

Important Links

ECA competition bulletin.

Preliminary timetable.

Official competition website.