The European Cup - Upgrades (by Ondrej Panenka)

[Joao]

by Ondrej Panenka:

Hi all!

Referring to the European Cup rules modifications Stan Hajek came up with a month ago, I’d like to provide an official standpoint of the Czech Boaters Union in this respect.

Regarding the proposal to cancel the minimum of 3 countries in a Euro Cup race we do agree with the same. As we already pay an annual fee and as a race gets approved officially after the organizer has paid the fee we believe that this should be enough for a race to hold the EC status. More importantly though there has been many competitions since the beginning of the year with less then 3 participating countries and these races couldn’t have been counted to the overall standings. In our opinion this is a pity as it isn’t a fault of the organizer many times. Also we believe that some teams may not be motivated to travel to a particular race as they’re afraid they won’t get any points there at all when only local teams show up. In case all races were sure to retain the EC status throughout the season regardless the number of countries, it could be that actually more teams participate.

We also agree with Stan’s proposal to adjust the H2H / Sprint / TT points. It reflects the fact that conditions for organizing a sprint discipline are different race from race and it also gets closer to the IRF rules.

The European Cup Golden League format or whatever it’s called was widely discussed in Wildalpen in May. It seems like there is a feeling in the rafting community that at least some of the European Cup races should become more interesting as far as especially competition and over all quality of the events is concerned. Rafters want to boost the sporting standard of EC events and particularly to raise the number of good teams participating in the series. In Wildalpen we discussed a number of options. Generally we agreed on making some races more important than the others in order to make them more attractive for teams. The number of competitions in the “Golden League” varied from 1 to 4 and there were also more opinions on how the system of points awarded for taking part in these races should be elaborated (e.g. counting 2 “Golden League” races out of 3-4 plus 2 of “the old Euro Cups etc….). We also considered what body would select these “Golden League” events (either the European Commission or a commission created especially for this reason or the EC community as a whole - through the internet…). We agreed that the events should be reasonably selected as far as geography is concerned, possibly shifting from one place to another every year. We also considered a possibility of awarding some rather substantial prize money to the overall winners.

The Czech Boaters Union would love to see such series of competitions with many quality teams participating. Unfortunately though we believe it’s rather unrealistic at the moment to have a whole league of such kind. Believe teams would not be able to travel that extensively. Still we strongly support the idea of making some races more important than the others in order to attract good teams and to boost the sporting standard. Let us remind you that the Euro Cup is a club activity and any teams can participate regardless if they do or do not form the national team in their country. We believe that one competition of a formally higher level would be good to start with. Such event would be awarded double points for all disciplines. A sum of two “standard Cups” and “the double points final” would be counted in order to have the final European Cup rankings. This way teams would be attracted to attend such race (a question is whether the double points would be enough to attract them - adding prize money could be good - e.g. gathered from higher IRF fees… [naturally finding a sponsor would be more efficient]). If it was only one race per year we believe that no additional body would need to be created for choosing the location. We can discuss that over the internet. In our opinion the best place for such “Final” would be Wildalpen as it’s reasonably located for almost everybody, as there are all disciplines and a long tradition of organizing quality competitions. For this reason we suggest to declare the Wildalpen European Cup race “the European Cup Final” for the next season and to award it double points for all disciplines. The Wildalpen event results plus any two of the ordinary cup’s results would be then used for the final rankings.

Please, do let us know whether you agree with these suggestions or not. We believe that in case they’re approved, they’ll make the European Cup more attractive.

Best Regards,

Ondrej Panenka

Czech Boaters Union

tel.: +420732444329

[Joao]

by Jakob Faerch:

Dear friends in rafting

Thanks Ondrej for keeping the discussion going, and posting the dates for coming EC/international competitions.

In my mind the goal – in some years from today – is The European Club Crew Championship – where all teams in Europe, from clubs member of national federation that is IRF affiliated, meet in one big competition/rafting festival. BothYouth, Senior and Veteran competitions shopuld be included. This event should run every year on natural white water or artifical course – in R4 format (Olympic Class). Maybe the idea of a “Eurocup Final” will be the competition that in time developes to become The European Club Crew Championship.

In the meantime, I think it is important to upgrade the status of some EC races – just as described in the Golden League Format.

I don’t know how many competitions should be counted in the overall stanmding?! Remember that from 2010 IRF are having R4 WRC and 2011 R6 WRC. From here it will continue with R4 / R6 in alternatede years. This also means that in 2010 – IRF is supposed to hold both R6 ERC and R4 WRC. For many contries the teams going to European Cups at the moment, are the same teams that come to ERC and WRC. Do you think that in 2010 it will be difficult for teams to travel to 3 x EC/Golden League Champs + WRC + ERC?

To follow the ideas from Czech Rep. I suggest that it is annonced that every year there are nominated 2 x standard European Cups and 1 x Doubble Final. But only one/the teams best result from one of the Standard Cups are counted + the points from the double final. This way it is “only” nescesary to compete at two races. I can not see many teams coming to three competitions every years, especially when we have ERC and WRC, and also if the races will be held far from central Europe, e.g. great Britain, Norway, Spain and Sweden.  

I don’t agree with the view that all C-level competitions could be annonced as European Cups. This will devaluate the EC, and it will be hard to gather a sponsor. If there are only 3 European Cups every year there is the basis of getting an overall sponsor that would give Prize money, I think. If there is only three EC there should be no minimum countries participating.  

I think that the double final should always be held some where in Central Europe, to attract most teams. The two standard European cups should be given to different parts of Europe every year, if there is organizors ready. North-central-south, east.    


Best regards,

Jakob Faerch
IRF BOD, International Relations.