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International interest first really came about in the 1960's,
when national teams started participating regularly in the
Devises and Sella events as well as in the Liffey Descent in
Ireland. And when the Danish Tour de Gudena began in 1968 the
international interest for long distance racing increased
immensely. In only a few years this race became a big hit with
up to 20 countries entering and more than 1'000 paddlers
competing.
Motion
towards the ICF
This development and suggestions from several Federations lead
to an informal meeting in 1975 at the Tour de Gudena between
the Director of the BCU Gordon Richards, the British team
manager Jim Rossiter, the founder of the Gudena race Erik
Wilche and myself, then being General Secretary of the Danish
Federation. We decided to have a meeting in London in December
of the same year, with representatives of the British, Dutch,
Irish, Norwegian and Danish Federations attending to get the
ICF to recognize Canoe Marathon, the way we had decided to
name it. We also prepared a set of competition rules for the
1976 ICF Congress, based on the fact that more than 20
National Federations were practicing this kind of Canoe
racing.
The Congress however followed the Board's recommendation to
set up a workgroup under the chairmanship of Board Member John
W. Dudderidge to examine Canoe Marathon before the next
Congress. With this workgroup we realized, that we needed to
come up with more evidence a to be able to convince the Board.
We decided to introduce a Grand Prix series of 3-4 events a
year for National Teams in K1 and K2 men. The interest and
participation was a success from the start.
The 1978 Congress decided against the Board's recommendation
and said, that Canoe Marathon should be a separate competition
discipline. The Board had wanted Marathon to be attached to
Touring, but instead it was decided to set up a sub committee
to prepare competition rules for the next Congress. The 1980
Congress approved the competition rules, but still not a
separate committee. Marathon was allowed a sub committee
attached to the Paddling Racing Committee.
World Cup
and World wide Marathon
We realized that the next step was to show that the quality of
the competitions as well as the competitors was on a high
level. So we introduced an annual World Cup event for national
teams with 3 ICF trophies for K1 and K2 men, K1 and K2 women,
and C1 and C2 men.
This proved to be a very good idea and it was acknowledged
quite a bit by a lot of Board members of the ICF. Considering
the good situation in Canoe Marathon the 1982 Congress
expressed, that Marathon should have its one separate
committee in 1984, if the good development continued.
He discipline progressed, and so at the 1984 ICF Congress in
Sofia was not only the Marathon Racing Committee approved
unanimously, but also did the bold request for World
Championships pass with 28 votes for and only 4 against. This
was a true milestone for Canoe Marathon Racing. Finally after
9 years of hard work Canoe Marathon was recognized by the ICF
without reservation.
With the approval to hold World Championships from 1988 on, a
significant raise in interest for Canoe Marathon came about.
Until then only European teams had mostly participated
although both USA and Canada were regularly attending the
major events with small teams. More continents have since
taken part and some major events have also gone outside
Europe. Grand Prix events were held in Australia, USA and
South Africa, and the 1992 World Championships took place in
Brisbane / Australia, in 1998 in Cape Town / South Africa, and
in 2000 Dartmouth / Canada will be the host. South America,
too, is eager to host ICF events, and it is only a matter of
time for this to happen.
Today Canoe Marathon is being practiced around the world on
all continents and in more than 50 countries. The excitement
of a Marathon race particularly during the portages, and the
high quality of paddlers in most classes indicate that Canoe
Marathon has the potential of becoming one of the more
important disciplines of the International Canoe Federation.
One or two categories of Canoe Marathon at Olympic Games could
add to the image of our sport in general. A sport with a lot
of exciting variety.
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