A canoe for Survival and tribal peoples at the Canoe Slalom World Championships

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Having grappled with national tests at Bratislava and at Augsburg, and qualified for the pre-world championship tests in Tacen, Slovenia, the young Italian athlete and ambassador for Survival International Angela Prendin has reached the final hurdle: she will compete at the Canoe Slalom World Championships, held this year at La Seu d’Urgell in the heart of Catalonia from the 9th to the 13th of September.
 
Angela will compete with a special canoe, inspired by the traditional kayak used by the natives of North America and the Inuit peoples of the Arctic. Her canoe will be emblazoned with Survival International's logo. This will enable the young athlete to combine her passion for canoeing with a solid humanitarian cause, so helping the world’s Indigenous peoples to defend their basic human rights.
 
"I first became involved with Survival some years ago” says Angela. “A friend of mine sent me one of their Christmas cards, which was very evocative for me: an Inuit pulling a canoe across the Artic ice. From that day began my interest in Indigenous peoples and the work of Survival. I was very busy at the time and my income was very little… however, in spite of this, I knew I wanted to do much more than simply make donations. My competitions take me around the World, and I began to think about international advertising. The violations that are perpetrated against Indigenous peoples around the world are unacceptable and I believe it is crucial that more people know about what is happening to them. Giving a voice to the most threatened tribal peoples through my sport, I hope to contribute in a effective way to the defence of their rights and futures.”
 
Angela, 24, is competing for the Canoe Club of Mestre and took up the sport at the age of 11. Since 2000 she has been a member of the Italian women’s canoeing team, and has won many titles, both national and international. In 2008 she missed qualifying for the Olympics by only 29 hundredths of a second.
 
The Olympic Games Park at Segre, where the Canoe Slalom Championships will be held, is renowned for having hosted the Barcelona Olympics in 1992. It has a special place in the heart of Italian athletes and water-sport enthusiasts, as it was in that same canal in 1992 that Italy won its first Olympic gold medal in the Canoe Slalom World Championship with Pier Paolo Ferrazzi.