Thomas Konietzko, president of the international paddle sports federation Paddle Worldwide, is in Poznan, Poland, where he is attending the World Championships.
İdman.Biz, covering the competition on site, met with Konietzko to discuss the prospects for the development of paddle sports in Azerbaijan.
Paddle Worldwide clearly has ambitious plans for the country. In March this year, Konietzko visited Mingachevir as well as the Sugovushan and Sarsang reservoirs. During the trip, he also met with Azerbaijani Prime Minister Ali Asadov.
In an interview with İdman.Biz, Konietzko spoke about plans to stage international tournaments in Azerbaijan, develop Mingachevir as a training centre and expand paddle sports in Karabakh.
– We are at the World Championships. How would you assess the level and scale of the competition in Poznan?
– I think it is a great competition. We have a large number of national federations participating – almost 90 – and around 1,000 athletes from all over the world, from all five continents.
This World Championships shows that our sport is growing and becoming truly global. The organisers here in Poznan have done an excellent job and created a very professional venue for the best athletes in the world.
– You recently visited Azerbaijan, where the possibility of staging international competitions in the country was discussed. What impressions did you take away from that visit?
– Believe it or not, I still have the beautiful landscape of Karabakh in front of my eyes. Those mountains in the background and that beautiful lake we visited, where we discussed whether we could organise international competitions.
Following those discussions, we came to the conclusion within our organisation that the Sarsang Reservoir is indeed suitable for staging a marathon, a world ranking race or another international competition.
This region deserves it, and we want to help your country develop it as a sports destination.
– Is there already an indication of when the first international paddle sports competition could be held in Karabakh?
– Not yet, but a visit by specialists to the venue will take place in October. After that, our chairman will have to discuss with the committee exactly which competition we could organise in Karabakh.
Of course, the necessary infrastructure is not there yet, so we will need temporary facilities. That means there are many organisational issues that still have to be discussed.
But our intention is to bring a competition to this beautiful place and promote our sport there.
We are also discussing what kind of competitions we could organise in Mingachevir. This city is certainly suitable for any kind of event.
In addition, there will be a slalom venue in your wonderful capital, Baku. I am almost certain that once this channel is fully ready, we will soon be able to stage Slalom World Cup events there.
– Do you believe Azerbaijan has the potential to become one of the leading centres for the development of the sport?
– Definitely. Azerbaijan has a rich history in paddle sports and has produced many successful athletes. Unfortunately, in recent years, you have not been able to win medals at the World Championships.
But your leadership has taken the right steps by investing in the younger generation. During my visit, I was impressed by how many young athletes are training in Mingachevir.
Of course, it takes time before an athlete reaches world level. But you are moving in the right direction, and I am deeply convinced that in the not-too-distant future Azerbaijani athletes will be competing for medals at international competitions.
Continue in this direction. Invest in youth and junior athletes, and one day you will have elite-level paddlers capable of fighting for podium places.
– Is Azerbaijan being considered not only as a host for international competitions but also as a training and development centre for athletes?
– Mingachevir has a history of hosting winter training camps dating back to the Soviet era. Russian and Soviet teams, as well as athletes from Bulgaria and East Germany, used to come to Mingachevir for training camps. And you have excellent conditions there.
There is a swimming pool and all the necessary sports halls close to the venue.
We, as the international federation, want to help – and are already helping – to promote Mingachevir as one of the development centres for our sport and as a place where teams from other countries can hold winter training camps and improve their level.
– How actively is Paddle Worldwide introducing modern technology into the development and administration of the sport? Is artificial intelligence, for example, being used in officiating or competition organisation?
– That is a good question, and we have to distinguish between administrative work and what happens in competition.
On the administrative side, we use new technologies and artificial intelligence. We have invested in a digital athlete registration system and launched new websites. We want to create comprehensive databases.
But when it comes directly to competition, I am not a big supporter of introducing further innovations. Technical innovation makes equipment more expensive, and not all of our federations can afford to buy new equipment or implement new technologies. They simply do not have the financial resources.
That is why I believe boats should remain as they are. Paddles should remain as they are, and in a certain sense, we should stop pushing innovation any further.
Ultimately, races should still be decided by the strength of the athlete over the final sections of the course, rather than by the shape or technology of the boat or paddle.
If we focus too much on the boat, the paddle and technology, we will lose what makes our sport so strong – the strength and ability of the athletes themselves.
– Water sports are directly dependent on the state of the environment. How does Paddle Worldwide approach environmental protection?
– This is a key issue because water is the playing field of our sport. Today, all over the world, we are dealing with both low and high water levels.
We therefore want to develop the right attitude towards the environment within our community and demonstrate that we can do a great deal to protect it and behave responsibly towards nature.
It starts with simple things – for example, making sure we take our rubbish with us. These are small steps, but together they can have a major impact.
One of our priorities is therefore to develop our sport sustainably and reduce carbon emissions as much as possible. For example, walking or cycling instead of using a car and avoiding leaving a large environmental footprint.
