Press releases

The awards ceremony was held in Portugal. “It is great when your achievements are seen and praised at the start of your career. At the same time such attention means great responsibility. This means that I am expected to deliver more. This award is not only my achievement. This is also the achievement of my coaches. I would also like to express gratitude to my teammate and close friend Elena Nozdreva, who worked as hard,” Nadezhda Makarchenko told BelTA.

The World Paddle Awards (WPA) is held annually, celebrating the most remarkable men and women from the world of paddlesports along with their achievements from the previous calendar year. The World Paddle Awards winners are selected through a secret vote held by the WPA members and also by a number of favorite athletes and nominees submitted on a special web page. Nadezhda Makarchenko was nominated for the prestigious award in the Junior category along with four more athletes from the United States, the Czech Republic, South Africa and Poland.

The Belarusian has been honored for her outstanding achievements over the past two years. She won gold medals in C1 200, C2 200, C2 500 at the Junior World Championships in Belarus in 2016 and gold medals in C1 200, C2 200, and a C1 500 silver at the Junior World Championships in Portugal in 2015.

The talented Belarusian athlete also received the Piotr Nurowski Prize for the Best Young European Athlete during the 25th General Assembly of the European Olympic Committees in Minsk in October 2016.