EVENTS
MALABAR RIVER FESTIVAL 2019, KERALA, INDIA, JULY 2019
The 7th edition of the Malabar River Festival was held in the Calicut district of Kerala, from the 26th - 28th of July 2019. This year’s festival focused on the development of the Indian paddling community, and therefore saw the largest participation of Indian kayakers to date, with a total of 75 participants from across 15 states in India and 9 participants from other countries. Highlights of the 2019 edition of the Malabar River Festival include receiving official recognition as an ICF (International Canoe Federation) event, being listed on the official calendar of ICF events, and hosting selections for the Indian Extreme Slalom National Team. The winners will be representing India at the ICF Worlds Extreme Slalom competition next year. Additionally, this year, MRF saw the largest participation of female athletes ever. While the 2018 edition had about six female competitors, this year there were 14. Ivan Kozlachkov from Russia was declared as the overall winner (Rapid Rajah) after he narrowly edged Amit Thapa of India in the super final. Shika Chouhan (India) was the winner of the Rapid Rani trophy. As always, the massive amount of prize money (close to 15,000 USD) up for grabs, along with the incomparable spectator turnout of more than 25,000 people - made sure that MRF 2019 lived up to its reputation of being the biggest whitewater festival in Asia. Goodwave Adventures, who created the Malabar River Festival and organize it each year, say they are indebted to their sponsors Kerala Tourism, GoPro and Redbull India for their continued support of the festival. Next year’s festival is tentatively scheduled for 23rd – 26th July 2020, and Goodwave Adventures / the organizers hope to put on even bigger show. So, mark your calendars and see you at the Malabar River Festival 2020!
THE EUROPEAN OPEN, NOTTINGHAM, ENGLAND, AUGUST-SEPTEMBER 2019
August 31st and September 1st saw the European Open event return to Nottingham. 2019 was the biggest event yet, with over 150 freestyle entries, 40 squirt boat entries (!), and more events than ever. Saturday was all about freestyle. The experts and intermediates were up at twin waves, throwing down their best moves from the ICF score sheet. The Novices on Fairy Wave had a slightly more fun score sheet, with tricks like the Shudder Rudder and the Harry Potter. The top 5 intermediate and experts of each discipline would then battle it out in finals to become the British and European Open Champions. Junior ladies kicked off the show with some impressive paddling. Ultimately, double World Champion Ottie Robinson Shaw took the glory. Junior men followed with a closely fought battle and a tremendous amount of camaraderie. Toby Marlow took the win and both titles. In C1, event organizer Ibbo had a healthy lead in prelims, but come finals, birthday boy Matt Stephenson walked away victorious. Lowri Davies took 2nd place and the British Champion title for the senior ladies, but it was
