European Junior Championships

This year’s European Junior Championships were held in the south of France, in the city of Canet en Roussillon.


This year’s European Junior Championships were held in the south of France, in the city of Canet en Roussillon.

Altogether, fourteen European Nations competed: Belgium, Czech Republic, Germany, Great Britain, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Norway, Poland, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, The Netherlands and of course France.

After the opening ceremony at Thursday evening in the Europe Pool, the first competition to be done was the SERC event.

The Friday and Saturday morning continued with all pool competitions, ruled by the Chief Referee Frans Kenis (Belgium).

At Saturday afternoon, the competitions started with the ocean events at the beautiful beach of Canet, ruled by the Chief Referee Bob Dekkers (The Netherlands).

Finally, on Sunday evening the closing ceremony took place in the Malibu Village.

After counting all points, the new and old European Junior Champion is the team from Italy (839 points), followed by Germany (809 points) and Spain (646.5 points). France got the fourth place.

Congratulations to all athletes competing in these Championships, to all referees and judges and all the voluntary hands that helped to manage this event.

More information and photos are available on the website of the French Lifesaving Federation – Federation Francaise de Sauvetage et de Secourisme.

ILSE was represented by the Secretary General Dr. Dirk Bissinger (Germany), supported by the European Directors Isabel Garcia (Spain), Boris Donda (Switzerland) and Pierre Soubirain (France). Special thanks have to be delivered to our friends of the French Federation, chaired by the president Bernhard Rapha, who was also present during the competitions.

Next year’s European Championships will be held in the Netherlands.