The 2026 National Canoeing Gala awards some paddlers from the Balearic Islands

Balearic canoeing had once again a highlighted role in the Canoeing National Gala, celebrated on February 14th, 2026, in the Congresses Palace of Gijón. The event, which reached its 40th edition, reunited the best paddlers from all over the country and left some recognitions for athletes linked to the Balearic Islands.

Amongst the great names of the night, Marcus Cooper Walz, trained in the Reial Club Nàutic Portopetro and chosen as best male paddler of 2024 with the ‘Trofeo Asturias Paraíso Natural’. The paddler, born in Oxford, but trained in Mallorca, achieved his third olympic medal when getting bronze in K4 500. This result is added to the gold achieved in Río 2016 (K1 1000) and the silver in Tokyo 2020 (K4 500), consolidating his legacy as one of the great referents of Spanish canoeing.

The Balearic fleet also took the spotlight in other categories. Mallorcan María dels Àngels Moreno, from Reial Club Nàutic del Port de Pollença, was recognized as best U23 female paddler of 2025 with the ‘Trofeo Iberdrola’. The young paddler signed an outstanding season, accumulating six international medals between world and European championships and cups of the world. In addition, its successes arrived in good part, forming a pair in C2 with Viktoriia Yarchevska, one of the great leaders of the modality.

In U23 male category, the award was for Álex Graneri Larrea, paddler of the Real Club Náutico de Palma awarded with the ‘Trofeo Tecozam’ after adding four international medals during the 2025 season, confirming the great level of the generational relay.

Another of the recognitions arrived in the section of the best teams of the Spanish Federation. In 2024 the pair of C2 500 formed by Diego Domínguez and the Mallorcan of Reial Club Nàutic del Port de Pollença, Joan Antoni Moreno, olympic bronze in Paris. This result was one of the recent benchmarks of national canoeing and reinforced the weight of the Balearic islands in the international elite.

The gala, retransmitted for the first time on live tv, went over all the successes in Spanish canoeing in 2024 and 2025, two historical seasons for this sport. In this balance, Balearic talent was key, in the consolidation of important paddlers such as Marcus Cooper as well as in the growth of new promises that aim high in the international setting.

With awards in some categories and presence in the highest of the awards, The Balearic Islands confirmed in Gijón its role as one of the main talents of Spanish canoeing.