YOG canoe prodigy gets his hands dirty to repair beloved venue
Barely 24 hours after Jiri Prskavec’s (CZE) moment of glory at the European Canoe Slalom Championships, the 21 year-old YOG medallist and canoe sensation was back home in Prague to lend a helping hand to the effort to restore the flooded canoe venue.
The Prague slalom course was left submerged under mud and water, following the floods that swept through the country earlier this month. In a bid to repair the venue in time for the 2013 ICF Canoe Slalom World Championships next September, Jiri was eager to get his hands dirty and join the group of volunteers and the local organising committee in their efforts to clear up the debris and revive the world-class venue.
"I really admire the people working in the Prague slalom area”, commented the young champion. “It is a great thing that they’re able to join their power and efforts to clean and secure the area. The people’s hard work is slowly making the World Championships real again.”
Clearly uplifted by this gesture, the young canoe prodigy was greeted as a hero. After all, it was only the day before that the modest Czech was crowned double European Champion in canoe slalom. This achievement joins an already impressive list of accolades, as Jiri took the Under-23 World Title in 2012 and won bronze at the first-ever Youth Olympic Games in Singapore, in 2010.
Watch this space, as Jiri is certainly one to watch!
And watch here his race from Singapore 2010: