Canoe Sport Russia 2015 Media Professional of the Year

Richard Fox, Sergey Medvedev and Joao Tomasini Schwertner.

Writer: Alyce Burnett - With over 36,000 instagram followers, 20,000 Facebook followers and over 1,500 website visits per day, CanoeSport are one of the dominant forces in paddlesport media across the globe. They have reignited people's passion for paddling through their coverage on their website and within social media. In Barcelona at the World Paddle Awards, they were deserving winners of the Media Professional award.

Operated by Sergey Medvedev, with his mother and father helping with photography and video editing, CanoeSport is a product of passion. When accepting the award Sergey promised that there are still bigger and better things to come from them. “This is amazing. I am very happy. It is a great honour for us to be here and to receive this award. It motivates us to go on and to do our best. In the future we want to be able to cover a lot of languages on the website and we want to make a social network and app. We have a lot of ideas.”

Much of their success can be pinned to their quick rise to fame on Instagram. They have created a hub where people are able to find quirky video montages of training and racing, motivational photos and tributes to the sport's best paddlers. Sergey admits that whilst his alliances lie with Russia, they cannot wait to keep adding content to this account as the world's best paddlers put the final touches on their preparation for the Rio Olympic Games in less than six months. I think a lot of Russian paddlers will do well (At the Olympics). I love all athletes in the world and I wish all of them good luck in the Olympic Games.

Sergey made special mention that without the support of the paddling community, CanoeSport would never have had as much success. “Thanks to everybody who voted for CanoeSport. Thanks to all of the members of the Academy. Thanks to my beautiful wife and amazing family. To all athletes and coaches for their support, we thank you.”

For an overview of all the winners click here.