Top Maltese athletes Christopher Camilleri and Matthew Schembri are attending a training camp organized by the International Canoe Federation in Dunavarsany, Hungary. The camp is headed Csaba Hüttner with Tibor Virag supervising the men’s kayak teams. The group will then travel to the ICF Canoe Sprint World Championships in Szeged next Tuesday.

These competitions count as one of the qualifying events for next year’s Olympic Games in London with the distances covering 1000m and 200m in the men’s category and 200m and 500m in the women’s. Camilleri will be competing in the fast paced 200m sprint in a K1 whilst Schembri, who is making his kayaking debut in this world class competition, is going for the more technical 500m sprint, also in a K1. The duo will then pair up in a K2 for the 200m sprint in what will be Malta’s first entry with a team boat in these competitions.

Both Camilleri and Schembri recently returned from competing in Sicily where they claimed third place in the Men’s Senior category for the 1000m in a k2. They were accompanied by female athlete Nicola Borg Costanzi who placed first in the Women’s Senior Category in a k1, also in the 1000m distance. Their performance bodes well for next week’s races.

Whilst at the World Championships, Camilleri and Schembri will be accompanied by Nicola Borg Costanzi acting as Team leader and Head coach Kata Pongracz.