Alongside the Pavese, standard bearer of the Air Force, there will be the French Maxime Beaumont, silver medalist five years ago at the Rio Games
PAVIA. Manfredi Rizza’s Olympics has finally reached the starting line. On the night between Tuesday and Wednesday, at 2.51 am Italian time (9.51 am in Japan) the rider from Pavia will make his debut at the Tokyo Games competing in the fourth heat of the K1 200 meters. From lane number 5 of the Sea Forest Waterway, Rizza will launch his challenge. Alongside the standard-bearer of the Air Force, there will be the French Maxime Beaumont, silver medalist five years ago at the Rio Games to make immediately interesting an elimination which will have the task of evaluating the form of Rizza and the his opponents. The Russian Gusev, the Chinese Yang and the Serbian Zdelar will be the other players in a battery that will allow the first two finishers access to the semifinal (to be played the next day) without going through the repechage.
In the other preliminaries all the attention will be focused on the British Heath (Olympic and world champion in office) and on the Hungarian Totka (European champion) who have the underdogs on their side. The German Rauhe and the Spaniard Craviotto, who have reached their fourth Olympics, will also deserve great attention; both in Japan will go in search of their fifth five-circle medal also competing in the K4 500 meters test, which will surely take away their precious energy.
In a season that until now has always seen him as a protagonist on an international level, Rizza will try to get in the way of the fight for medals in a race that has often allowed many surprises. The bronze in the World Cup and the fifth place at the European Championships have witnessed this season the international caliber of the Pavese, now called to the definitive leap in quality: five years after the Rio de Janeiro Olympics, which ended in sixth place, the time has come. for the blue to hunt for a medal to inscribe his name in the history of the world canoe.
An opportunity not to be missed
The Tokyo Olympics will be the last to see the 200-meter K1 competition scheduled, a race that has profoundly revolutionized the canoeing landscape from multiple points of view. From the 2024 Paris Games the 200 meters will be sacrificed to make room for extreme slalom. One more reason for Rizza to seize, on his second five-circle adventure, the opportunity of a lifetime by earning a place in the Olympus of the discipline.
An old acquaintance of the Pavese canoe, Francesca Genzo, who had been a member of Canottieri Ticino for some years, made her debut on Monday. In the heats of the K1 200, Genzo, now standard bearer of the Navy, collected a good second place, gaining access to the semifinal. –