History

The Australian Canoe Federation (ACF) was formed on 10 September 1949 at a meeting held in New South Wales.South Australia, Victoria and New South Wales were represented. Affiliation with the International Canoe Federation (ICF) quickly followed.

During these early stages racing (sprint) and marathon were the main disciplines of Australian Canoeing within the Federation. The first Australian Sprint titles were held in 1951. Sprint was also included in the 1956 Melbourne Olympic Games, in which Australia gained a bronze medal in the now discontinued 10,000 metre event.

During the sixties, the arrival of commercially available glass fibre made it possible to construct canoes and kayaks more easily. As a result the sixties were a boom period for the sport. Slalom competition became increasingly popular. However, the seventies were probably the biggest boom period. Whitewater canoeing developed extensively as boat designs improved. Touring rivers became very popular and a need for better skills and knowledge to increase safety was recognised.

In January 1973 the Nepean Canoe Club announced a Safety Award Scheme. A member of the club who had been involved in canoeing in Britain helped develop the program, based on the British Canoe Union scheme. The scheme included awards for sea canoeing and inland waters. The south Australian Canoeing Association also had an award scheme based on the BCU model at this time. AN ACF Annual Report later that year identified a need for grading paddlers in some way. A safety committee was formed and later became the Australian Board of Canoe Education, adopting the Nepean Canoe Club's Scheme for National use.

At its peak, in the 1980's the Australian Canoe Federation had 115 affiliated clubs coming from every state. Competition began to mature throughout the eighties and results at Olympic level included a silver medal at the Moscow Olympics (John Sumegi), a bronze at the Los Angeles Olympics (Grant Kenny & Barry Kelly in K2), and a silver gold medal in Seoul (Grant Davies). In marathon, Australia became a dominant force with numerous medals. John Jacoby made history by winning the World K1 Marathon titles four times.

As a result of those and other successes at international level canoeing became recognised as one of the super seven sports thus gaining further funding as it entered the nineties. An Australian Institute of Sport satellite unit for Sprint was created in the late eighties on the Gold Coast and as a result of the inclusion of slalom canoeing in the Barcelona Olympics a small unit was established for slalom in Tasmania in 1990. The Barcelona Olympics were the second to include slalom, the first being the Munich Olympics in 1972. The Barcelona Olympics bore a gold medal (Clint Robinson), a silver medal (Danielle Woodward) and a bronze medal (Steve Wood, Ian Rowlings, Ramon Andersson, Kelvin Graham).

The World Marathon Championships in Brisbane and a World Cup Slalom in Tasmania, both held in 1992, established Australia's competence at conducting major international events.

In 1996, the Australian Canoe Federation at its Annual General Meeting adopted a new Constitution and changed the name of the association to Australian Canoeing Inc.

Structure

Australian Canoeing Inc. encompasses all the disciplines of the sport of canoeing. Committees exist for each major discipline and are responsible to the Board for administering and fostering the development of that discipline. Each state has its own Association, which is directly affiliated to Australian Canoeing. Each state association has committees to administer and foster the major disciplines in its state. These state committees work together with their corresponding Australian Canoeing committee. Clubs affiliate with their state bodies and hence are affiliate to Australian Canoeing.

The Australian Board of Canoe Education (ABCE) provides an award scheme and promotes education within the organisation. Safety is promoted extensively by the ABCE. Each state Association conducts various programs of instruction and assessment. Collectively, the state Associations and AC work together to provide a common direction for canoeing in Australia.

Canoe Disciplines

Touring, Canoe Polo, Flatwater Racing, Canoe Slalom, Freestyle, Wildwater Racing, Sea Kayaking, Canoe Sailing, and Canoe Marathon are all under the one umbrella of Australian Canoeing.

Sprint canoeing is probably one of the best known competitive canoeing disciplines in Australia. This is probably due to its inclusion in the Olympic Games since 1936, including the 1956 Melbourne Olympic Games. Australia has had good Olympic results in more recent Games. Sprint canoeing is all about speed on flat water over distances of 500 metres and 1000 metres. The craft that have developed are sleek and fast but unstable. Sprint kayakers use specially designed 'wing' paddles for extra power and efficiency. K1, K2 and K4 are the most popular classes of sprint kayaking but there are also canoe classes, C1 and C2.

Recent Results at International Level

The 1996 Atlanta Olympics were one of the most successful Olympic campaigns for sprint racing with every boat making the final of their event. Three of the boats collected bronze medals - Clint Robinson (K1 1000m), Daniel Collins and Andrew Trim (K2 500m) and Anna Wood and Katrin Borchert (LK2 500m).

The success at the Atlanta Olympics was followed up by a strong performance at the 1997 World Championships inCanada, with a team comprising only half of the Olympic team from the year before. Andrew Trim and Daniel Collins won gold in the K2 500m, Katrin Borchert and Anna Wood won two silver medals in the K2 500m and 1000m, the men's K4 1000m collected a bronze medal and Jacqui Mengler won bronze in the non-Olympic event LK1 200m.