News This weekend has seen plenty of sporting action at Lagoa Rodrigo de Freitas A festival of sports and culture to celebrate one year until the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games has provided a host of entertainment and activities around the lagoon, while on the water, 180 athletes from 30 different countries competed in the International Canoe Sprint Challenge, the 10th test event ahead of next year's Games A supporting team of 890 people, including 165 volunteers, were out in force to make sure the competition, that took place between 4 and 6 September, was a success  “Generally, we compete in places way out of town, but that's not the case here,” enthused the Austrian para-canoist Markus Swoboda, who won his seventh world championship crown in the KL2 200m class in Milan last month Lithuanian K-1 200m competitor Ignas Navakauskas was also delighted with the test event: “I loved the setting, it's very different to my country I want to come back a few times before the Games to train ”“It was a big success,” was the verdict of Simon Toulson, secretary general of the International Canoe Federation (ICF) According to Toulson, one major difference between Rio and other competition venues is that the Lagoa is natural rather than purpose built “Everyone made the most of being in Rio de Janeiro and is looking forward to the Olympic Games,” he said There is still work to be done, according to Toulson: “But I can see there is a good team and enthusiastic people in place ” The event was a double celebration for the canoe sports manager of the Rio 2016 organising committee, Sebastián Cuattrin, with the final day of the sprint challenge coinciding with his birthday “Everything went right The team integration was perfect,” he commented after the event With some questions raised about the presence of algae in the lagoon – brought on by an unusually warm winter – Cuattrin said that there are plans in place so that the situation does not arise again next year “It's for situations like this that we have the test event,” he explained “I'm confident that we will make the necessary adjustments and that everything will be resolved by the Games ”Fernando Fernandes crosses the finish line to seal gold for Brazil  (Photo: Rio 2016/Paulo Múmia) The lack of sun over the three competition days did not put the foreign visitors off “I really like the place, the view,” said paddler Danish René Holten Poulsen, winner of the K2 1000m race alongside Nils Boe The Brazilians were approving, too “I think the event and the organisation was excellent,” commented Fernando Fernandes, the only Brazilian to win in the challenge, in the K1 200m KL1 category “Accessibiity was something that was worrying me, but it wasn't an issue here It was an event for everybody – Olympic and Paralympic athletes ”For more results, see the ICF website