By Johnny Craig

The waterways of the Crana River and Lough Swilly will be a hive of activity this weekend as the inaugural Crana Canoe event takes place in Buncrana.

The event which is being joint organised by Just Kayak and the Foyle Paddlers will see some of the top watersports teams in Europe converge in Inishowen to compete in a number of different events including Sea Kayaking, Slalom, Boater Cross and Venture Racing.

Event organiser Adrian Harkin has been busy completing preparations for the event which will be held on Saturday and Sunday and will feature over 100 competitors.

“We’ve been planning this event for over six months now,” he explained.

“The Irish Olympic coach will be in Buncrana on Friday to set up the slalom course on the Crana which will see the Irish team, the Northern Irish team and the Dutch national team compete on it.

“We’ll be using Lough Swilly for the Sea Kayaking and Venture Race which will run from Buncrana to Portsalon and back via Dunree.”

Moville based Just Kayak are encouraging the Inishowen public to come out and support the races which is the first time so many different watersports disciplines have been hosted in a single event in Ireland.

Spectators can view the action from the various vantage points around Swan Park and Harkin is hopeful that the event will help cement Inishowen’s reputation as a centre for watersports tourism.

“The Crana River is ideal for Kayaking as it is a damn release river and when you consider Ballyliffin’s reputation for surfing and Lough Swilly’s suitability for sailing we have outstanding natural resources for watersports Inishowen,” argued Adrian.

“This is the first year of the event but we would hope that we can develop it into a huge event over the next five years and the local community will benefit.

Buncrana Youth Club have setup a camping ground in their grounds to accommodate some of the visitors for the canoeing fraternity and campers will be able to avail of the sjhower and toilet facilities there.

The action gets underway at 10.30 on both days and finishes at 5 with a break between 12.30 and 1.30 for lunch.