The canoeing section of the Reial Club Nàutic Port de Pollença is a leader on a regional, national and international level thanks to its track record, achieved with a lot of dedication, sacrifice and effort by its management team and the Club's canoeists.
This section is structured on three levels: initiation, competition and technification. Its shining star is Sete Benavides, who competes at international and Olympic level, obtaining an Olympic diploma in 2012 and 2016.
The RCNPP canoeists form a united team that participates in national and international races in the K1, K2, C1 and C2 categories. The RCNPP organises events on the Balearic calendar and also the Spanish Championship. The track record of our canoeists is one of the best on the island. The canoeing section comprises almost 40 athletes, with 16 competing at a national level and three at an international level. It also has a good pool of junior athletes who manage to rank us as the club with the most medals for individual boats in Spain. Children canoeists aren't left on the sidelines either and they bring us great joy.
This group includes younger athletes who want to get started in this sport.
The youngest children make up this learning group. It's the most fun group in which students learn to row and compete by playing. The members of this group are between 7 and 12 years old. Here, they develop the discipline of canoeing and train four days a week: Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.
This group has given great joy to the Club since it brings many successes at a Balearic level. It competes in all promotional and club regattas in the Balearic Islands, including one in Menorca and one in Ibiza.
This group comprises those athletes who have excelled in the learning group and are grouped as beginners.
The national team groups all those athletes in the children's and junior categories who are able to compete in national competitions.
Of all the groups in the canoeing section, this is the one that's on the edge of a high-quality team's training standard. When they start this stage, they stop being part of a class and begin learning with a view towards high competition. It's undoubtedly the most unstable group of all, considering that they go from playing to competing at a high national level.
With the current team, we've grown stronger in recent years by winning medals in all the Spanish championships and being among the top three in Spain. Training days are from Monday to Saturday.
Technification is the group that specialises in the technique of junior and senior athletes, intending to maximise the performance of each of them
The technification group is the most professional and complete of all. Its members train rigorously and continuously in order to qualify for and attend European and world championships and even aspire to qualify for the Olympic Games.
These athletes spend much of their time training and studying. Training at this level requires concentration and effort. It's the dream of attending international competitions that makes top-level athletes forget the sacrifices they make to achieve their goals. Weekly training is from Monday to Saturday, although very often it runs from Monday to Sunday.
The members of this group qualified for and competed in the 2014 European Championships. We would like to give a special mention to Sete Benavides, who won the silver medal in the C1 200 m category at the Canoe Spring European Championship held in Brandenburg, Germany. Among other achievements, he participated in the 2012 London and 2016 Rio Olympics, obtaining an Olympic diploma.
This group only includes junior and senior athletes with the necessary skills for international competitions.