🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 My Bosnian Notebook 🇧🇦

Share this post

World Rafting Championships in Banja Luka.

www.anenglishmaninthebalkans.com

World Rafting Championships in Banja Luka.

Bosnia and Herzegovina 🇧🇦 once again hosts a World Championship event

David Pejčinović-Bailey MBE
Jun 3, 2022
Share
Share this post

World Rafting Championships in Banja Luka.

www.anenglishmaninthebalkans.com
Opening Ceremony of the International White Water Rafting Championships 2022 in Banja Luka

Hello and welcome to this edition of our Blog, from Čardačani, in the north of Bosnia and Herzegovina, written by an immigrant (me), as I am neither a tourist or a citizen here.

Banja Luka has been booming with “guests” this past week, as the city has been co-hosting (together with Foča), the 2022 World Rafting Championships.

Our local river (Vrbas) has all the components to host this world class event. The location is remarkable indeed, and when the city has hosted previous European and international events, the organisation has been most impressive.

What else is remarkable is that the location offers both locals and tourists the ability to experience rafting for themselves (under supervision of course). But NOT at the speeds that professional competitors do.

We highly recommend a session of rafting when visiting this area.

I am not a sports journalist, so the links and snippets below should give you a basic overview of this major event.

2022 World Rafting Championship

Locations: Banja Luka and Foča 🇧🇦

70
Teams. 400 Competitors. 30 Countries.

How successful were the teams from 🇧🇦 Bosnia and Herzegovina 🇧🇦?

Team Japan getting off to a quick start on the River Vrbas

Bosnia and Herzegovina Men’s Open Team Won the Bronze Medal in Head-to-Head.

Bosnia and Herzegovina Men’s Masters Team Won Bronze.

Men’s Master Team of Bosnia and Herzegovina Wins Silver Medal in Slalom.

The Bosnia and Herzegovina Team in action on the River Vrbas


The captain of the “Masters” team of Bosnia and Herzegovina emphasised that they have been suffering on the international scene for a long time.

We do not get enough investments. We go to world competitions only a few days before the competition starts and we don’t have enough time to train. Despite that, you make a good result, but you miss that little bit to win a medal and to be completely equal to the rest of the competition. We have been really preparing for this championship from the moment we knew that it will be in Banjaluka and Foča. We are really thankful for the gratitude of Aleksandar Pastir who decided to take over the organisation of the World Championship after China dropped out. He entered a project like this and in a short time made an organisation that works perfectly.

In my opinion a very fair comment from the captain of team Bosnia and Herzegovina.

FIND OUT MORE

The Banja Luka Connection

Andrej Zamolo, Igor Kuzmanović, Nebojša Tadić and Dragan Bijelić

Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Masters Team R4, consisting of: Andrej Zamolo, Igor Kuzmanović, Nebojša Tadić and Dragan Bijelić (all from Banja Luka), won four world rafting medals, in all four disciplines. These guys by the way, are from Dajak klub Banja Luka.

The next generation of “rafters” from Bosnia and Herzegovina?

There are English subtitles to this video.

Our Coverage of the 2015 European Rafting Championships

The Podcasts

The 2 podcasts we recorded with both the 🇬🇧 Great Britain 🇬🇧 men and women’s teams

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 An Englishman in the Balkans 🇧🇦
The 2015 European Rafting Championships in Banja Luka.
Listen now | A few days ago I realised that I would be back in Banja Luka at the same time as the 2015 European Rafting Championships were being held at Rafting Klub “Kanjon“ on the River Vrbas to the south of the city. I knew that Team GB would be attending so tentatively asked the Ladies Team if I could come along and cover their attendance…
Read more
8 years ago · David Pejčinović-Bailey
🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 An Englishman in the Balkans 🇧🇦
The 2015 European Rafting Championships in Banja Luka
Listen now | I recently covered the 2015 European Rafting Championships (for this blog) being held at Karanovac, on the River Vrbas, just to the south of Banja Luka. It was an overcast and rainy Sunday. On arrival I was looking out for the person I was to meet from the Great Britain Ladies Team, when I caught sight of someone wearing a Union Flag designed T shirt. I …
Read more
8 years ago · David Pejčinović-Bailey

Leave a comment

Thanks for reading this post. We hope it provides some value to you 😀👍

If you want to read back editions of the newsletter, listen to previous podcasts (we have quite an archive now), or catch other content, all this is available on the web interface, just like a regular blog.

Oh, and please share the newsletter with friends, relatives and colleagues using the button below.

Tamara and I appreciate your faithful readership, your comments, and your generosity! 

THANKS SO MUCH ❤️

Share
Share this post

World Rafting Championships in Banja Luka.

www.anenglishmaninthebalkans.com
Previous
Next
Comments
Top
New
Community

No posts

Ready for more?

© 2023 David Pejčinović-Bailey
Privacy ∙ Terms ∙ Collection notice
Start WritingGet the app
Substack is the home for great writing