Last
August, Slovenian canoeing community watched their most known Kayak Centre
Tacen being washed away by devastating floods that hit Slovenia and with this
their infrastructure on and by the course. Now, only nine months later, the
venue awaits one of the peaks of the international canoe slalom season, the
2024 ICF I Feel Slovenia Canoe Slalom European Championships.
The new
gates system, a new metal bridge, a new big LED screen, remodelled stands and
temporary containers are some of the things visitors of the Kayak Centre Tacen
see at a first glance. The venue is taking its final shape in preparation for
the 2024 ECA I Feel Slovenia Canoe Slalom European Championships in Ljubljana –
Tacen, however, the sight was completely different just nine months ago.
“Last
year, after the World Cup competition, where we received a bit of media
attention, saying that nothing has changed in Tacen for 30 years, which is
true, we planned to renovate the upper part of the competition course. We were
supposed to start in September, but everything fell into the water in August,
because practically everything we had already prepared was washed away. In
fact, it would be easier to list what was left than what was destroyed and
flushed away. So, unfortunately, we had to give up the renovation of the upper
part of the course, so that we could renovate the surroundings of the course
that it would be possible to organise the European Championships at all,” said
Jakob Marušič, secretary general of the organising committee.
In the
floods, one of the trademarks of the course, a little green house at the top of
the stands, could not hold the pressure of the water, so it collapsed, and
everything stored inside was washed away with the Sava River. Both the
electrical and optical wiring were torn and completely destroyed, the hole was
metres deep. The containers with the equipment were also damaged and the
equipment was lost forever. The wooden bridge was also washed away as well as
the big LED screen and several other infrastructural parts of the course.
“The
cleaning started immediately, the very next day. There was really a lot of
debris. We undertook the renovation according to our financial capabilities.
Fortunately, the Sports Foundation helped us so much that we were able to spend
the funds planned for something else on reconstruction of the damaged course.
First, we tackled the containers that house the timing providers, judges and
other services. We had to completely renovate the floor, walls, wiring. In
February, we started major construction works. We renovated the stands, we also
managed to reconstruct the lower part of the course, where a large part of the
wall was torn away,” said Marušič.
He added,
“Due to the lack of time, we were not able to restore the stands from stacked
stone, as was the case before, but instead we covered them with concrete.
However, we expect the concrete to gray and match the colour of the original
stands. Our plan to transform the first 50 meters of the competition course
into a series of smaller falls, following the model of modern canoe courses,
also fell through.”
The
renovation costs were enormous, “We knew immediately that the damage will be in
the millions, and indeed it is in the millions. So far, we have spent around
350,000 Euros on the reconstruction, but I must say that a number of companies
have helped us a lot. Some of them gave us big discounts, others did projects
for us for free, if we had paid for all of them, the amount would have been at
least twice as high by now. But not all the work is done yet. We are also
waiting for help from the government, which we have so far asked for guarantees
from the banks, so that we can at least take out a loan, while we haven't even
talked about the amounts yet. The Municipality of Ljubljana is somewhat more
responsive. If we end up having to pay for everything from our budget, it would
mean that we would have to cut into the funds for the competitions and
preparations of our competitors, which would not be fair to them.”
The
organisers hope for many spectators each day, all the income from the ticket
sales will be invested into the reconstruction of the damaged venue.
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