It doesn’t seem so long ago that the Olympics were in Tokyo and now the Paris games are on the horizon. That was made very apparent at this qualifying event in Tokyo at the end of last month. October was something of a water sport special for me with three events in eight days. First up was swimming on Sunday, that was followed by water polo on Friday and then there was this slalom canoeing and kayaking event two days after that.

Actually finding out about these water sports taking place really did take something of a  deep dive into my internet search engine, and daily checks for more information in the weeks building up to the events yielded very little. Eventually though I managed to get hold of the schedule for this slalom event and a plan was made to attend the afternoon session.

Kasai Canoe Slalom Centre (6-1-1 Rinkaicho, Edogawa-ku) is less than ten minutes on foot from Kasai-Rinkai Park station on the JR Keiyo Line but Google Maps didn’t take me the direct route. Instead, I entered through the security gate for the car park where I was allowed through by the guard but about 200 metres further on it was apparent that I might actually have been mistaken for a competitor as I was in an area I shouldn’t have been without the right lanyard pass around my neck. Maybe they thought I was from Uzbekistan or somewhere as this was an Olympic qualifying event for all of Asia. I was soon ushered through to the correct area for spectators by a kind staff member.

There was a sizeable crowd of around two hundred people (at a rough guess) in attendance on a warm and sunny afternoon at this venue which was constructed at a cost of about seven billion yen ($64m) for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. I really did think I might have been the only person in attendace beforehand so was quite surprised and relieved to find out some others knew this was taking part.

The women’s canoe finals were first up just after 1pm with nine competitors including a couple of Japanese females who had mixed fortunes. Haruka Okazaki came fourth whilst Ren Mishima came last. China’s Juan Huang was the fastest with a total time of 114.86 which I’m still a little confused but I guess they don’t use minutes in this sport!

What soon became apparent on this 200 metre long course was the skill needed to do such a sport. There were around 20 gates including a few of them positioned up stream thus requiring a change of direction and needing a lot of strength and skill to paddle against the swift current.

The men’s canoe finals followed and included Japan’s Takuya Haneda who was the most widely supported of all the competitors. He won bronze at Rio 2016 becoming the first Asian to win an olympic medal in the sport, and he came out on top in this qualifier with a fairly faultless performance (well there were no time penalties for him at all) clocking in with a time of 99.05.

The women’s kayaking was next not that I could really tell any difference between this and canoeing! The crowd had dwindled a fair bit by the time this event started but I stuck around for a bit more action.

The men’s kayaking finals followed but I was satisfied with what I had seen and needed to get back home anyway. Hopefully when Paris 2024 rolls around next year I will see one or two of these competitors on TV and if Takuya Haneda or whoever wins a medal for Japan I will no doubt be telling my students that I watched them live at this event.

Bonus: Whilst it’s not a water sport, it is played on ice which is basically frozen water isn’t it? This wasn’t my first ice hockey game as I saw a double header of games in Tokyo back in 2018 when four teams came to play in the capital. Back then the nearest team to Tokyo was Nikko Ice Bucks from Tochigi Prefecture but since then a new and closer team has emerged as Yokohama Grits were founded in May 2019. My friend Daniel is a regular attendee at their home games so I decided to join him and his friends one afternoon as they faced Korean opposition.

Click here to read ‘A Double Dose Of Water Sports Action At Tokyo Aquatics Centre’

Click here to read ‘Live Ice Hockey In Tokyo’

Click here to read ‘What It’s Like To Be A Spectator At The Tokyo 2020 Olympics’

Click here to read ‘Reignite Your Passion For The Olympics At This Tokyo Museum’