The TJ Kralupy canoe club has around 100 members. In addition to the promisingly developing form of the juniors competing in the Czech Championship, the section is building on a strong base of pupils and a large group of pre-teens.
The canoeing section was founded in Kralupy nad Vltavou in 1960 at the Tatran Kralupy (later Čechie) Sports and Educational Union. At that time, however, a "youth construction" was "raging" in Kralupy - a chemical factory for the production of artificial rubber called Kaučuk. For the purpose of sporting activities of the builders (and not only them), the eponymous TJ was also established and in 1962 the club came under its wings. Initially, the section was mostly devoted to speed canoeing, for which there were almost ideal conditions in Kralupy in the form of the lowland stream of the Vltava River, which was also surcharged by a lock in Miřejovice. At that time, it had about 15 members, who together with the sailing club shared the boathouse, which stood on the left bank of the Vltava, roughly in the place where the footbridge over the Vltava River stands today. Despite its short existence, the club managed to organize two editions of the race "Kralupy kilometers between bridges" during which the local V. Klimeš and R.Cikánková managed to reach the top positions in the category of youth.
The further improvement of the level of canoeists encountered, among other things, the problem of boats. Getting a really good speed boat was an expensive proposition even at that time and so the attention of some members began to turn to a slightly different branch of canoeing - slalom and whitewater rafting. At the same time as the club was changing its focus, the possibility of organising races in this sector was also being sought. In the end, the choice fell on the nearby Miřejovice weir, which once again proved to be of good service. On its right side there is a spillway and in the years 1961 to 1966 several editions of the water slalom race were organized there, initially with the generous organizational help of the competitors, especially of Tesla Žižkov (among others Jirásek, Hrabě, Šulc and others). The participants must have been real heroes because no changes were made in the spillway. The track consisted of 150 metres of not very deep fast flowing water and at the end of it a cylinder was waiting for the competitors.
The next stage in the history of the club begins to unfold in the early eighties.In the minds of many Kralupy racers and officials, ideas begin to be born for the restoration of the race track in the spider culvert of the Miřejovice dam. After the completion of the bridge, nothing prevented the removal of the ballast and so a plan for the construction of a real slalom course was born. However, he had to take into account three limiting factors. The first is the fact that the Miřejovice weir and therefore the spider culvert as part of it is a technical monument, which in practice means that no major irreversible changes can be made. The second is the hydroelectric power plant on the left bank, with which the culvert will share the water flowing through the Vltava riverbed. And who will have priority in the event of a shortage was clear to all. The third was the limited possibilities of the section and the consequent need for selfless brigade work. All the members of that time felt this in practice, the most busy ones being J.Froňek Sr., J.Froňek Jr., J.Noha Sr., M.Stádník, O.Špecingr and Z.Najman. Thanks to the first restriction, a somewhat different obstacle system was born than was usual in slalom channels in our country. Its main part became wooden gates in steel frames, which controlled and directed the flowing water. Connected tyres filled with concrete, stoneware pipes or steel tubes were used to create waves and rollers. Thanks to the hard work on the project documentation and then in the real culvert, everything was ready for the next edition of the slaloms in September 1984 after almost twenty years. On this occasion, thanks were expressed to Ing. K. Skrbek, ing. L. Kasz and Mrs. A. Vošáhlíková, thanks to whom it was possible to overcome all the difficulties in approving the documentation of the new track. On the new, but constantly changing track of the drill pass, another generation of racers grew up, the most successful of whom were J.Koudelka, J.Noha Jr. and especially M.Najman, who will be called to serve his basic military service in the ranks of Dukla Brandýs nad Labem at the beginning of the nineties for his performance.
The relatively promising development was, however, interrupted again by construction work. In 1987, the repair of the bridge piers and equipment on the weir began, so that the area above the weir and therefore the spillway was closed with larsens. The enforced break of a year and a half was used for further modifications in the culvert. In the meantime, competitors trained on the calm water below the spillway or took occasional exile on the tracks in Prague - Troja or Roudnice. They made up for the two-year fast after the reopening in 1989, when five races were held in the culvert. At that time the shipyard in Veltrusy was also completed, which provided the club with facilities right next to the training site. It was located at the very beginning of the lock at the former ÚNZ (now the Libuše Hotel). Over time, it was made up of four building cells with a built-in shelter for boats. Unfortunately, it was not to last long, because in 1992 the building of the neighbouring ÚNZ was returned in restitution to the original owner with the land on which it stood. At that time, the Vorova ski pass had already become a permanent part of the athletes' consciousness and top youth events were held here, such as the international junior slalom race in August 1991 or the federal youth championships in slalom and downhill. The downhill was really "rough" according to its participants, as the start was in Kralupy near the shipyard, followed by 4 km of standing water (basically following in the footsteps of the first Kralupy canoeists) and the final drama took place on 250 m of wild water in a culvert. More than one competitor then did nearly twenty minutes on the oxer only to topple over a hundred metres before the finish. But this race was the end of one of the club's heydays. In the following seasons, the membership crisis was in full swing. Older members gradually leave the ranks of the club for various reasons and the younger ones have not yet grown up to replace them. This was one of the reasons for the fact that for some time there were no races directed by the local club.
The turnaround came in 1996 when most of the members understood that this was perhaps the last chance to get out of the crisis and the joint efforts of all the then and "reactivated" members led to the rebuilding of the club. In 1996-1998 the yard was moved to its present (and all hope final) location, the surroundings were improved, the culvert was modified to make it safer for competitors and trainees while maintaining its difficulty. Since 1996, public slaloms called "Memorial of Jaroslav Froňek Sr." have been organized every autumn. At the same time, there is also an increase in performance, which has so far resulted in multiple participation of Kralupy racers in our top competition - the Czech Cup. During the years 1999 and 2000, a reconstruction was carried out using the whole course of the pass, the track was extended by another 70 metres, which otherwise was only a very long (and unpopular) finishing straight. In addition to slalom races, rafting and rodeo races are occasionally held here.
The summer of 2002 dealt a heavy blow to the whole area. After heavy rains in August, the Vltava River overflowed twice. The first wave meant "only" the cancellation of races and some damage directly in the canal, because the water level reached the edge of the slope near the shipyard. Just when things were starting to look brighter, the second wave, incomparably bigger, came and swept unbridled through the entire basin, causing billions in damage and, for forty people, the last thing they saw in their lives. What the flood meant to us in particular can be seen from notes and photographs taken during the flood. The final account can also be seen in the notes taken during the repairs in late 2002 and early 2003", financially the flood meant scraping the club coffers to the bottom, and for the club members and their willing friends countless hours spent repairing the damage caused by the water.
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