This weekend is stacked with two European paddling championships: Marathon Canoe Racing in Ponte de Lima Portugal, and Wildwater Canoe Racing in Mazzana Italy. So there’s a lot to talk about.

The level of competition at the European marathon champs will rival that of the upcoming World Games later this year, and will feature some of the biggest names and rivalries in the sport. Several of the podium athletes from the recent sprint world cups will be racing including Jon Vold and Joakim Lindberg. The Portuguese legend Fernando Pimenta, on home turf, will race in K2 with one of his greatest partners and rivals Jose Ramalho, as well as in the K1 for only the short course race.

In women’s K1, are we seeing the era of Hungarian Vanda Kiszli being turned into the era of Swede Melina Andersson? At last year’s marathon world championships, the two kayakers broke away from a very competitive pack to fight each other for the win. Kiszli had the better position with Andersson pushed into the bank, but in the last minute of the race Andersson found new strength to push past Kiszli for a clear win. Andersson has been on a streak with short course wins, but whether she’ll be able to beat out Kiszli in the long course again will be one of the biggest questions of the weekend.

In Mazzana, the athletes are watching water levels closely since they started rising over the last couple of days to reach monstrous heights. Keep your eye on GB athlete Kerry Christie, who’s already agreed to talk to Paddlecast after her racing this weekend…

And in the last few minutes of this week’s Paddlecast, hosts Billy and Betsy talk about the biggest unexpected paddling news of the week: the BBC Sport article about canoe slalom athlete Kurt Adams Roozentals, ‘I’m being forced to choose between Olympics and OnlyFans’.

Listen to the full episode of Paddlecast on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Photo credit for article cover photo: Balint Vekassy via ICF Media