page_title: Čunovo Water Sports Centre
section_title: Course description
hierarchical_section_title: Čunovo Water Sports Centre / Course description
caption_attribution_description: English: Niagara Drop at Cunovo Whitewater Center Danube River Slovakia, the last drop of the north, or left, channel. It is often the location of gates #20 and #21 in international canoe slalom competition.
context_page_description: The Čunovo Water Sports Centre is an artificial whitewater slalom course in Slovakia, on an island in the Danube river, 14 km southeast of Bratislava, near the village of Čunovo. It is powered by flow diversion from the Čunovo dam. Since 1997, it has hosted a full schedule of local, regional, and international competitions, including multiple World Cup races, 2 European Championships and the 2011 World Championships.
context_section_description: The Centre has two parallel whitewater channels; the drop is the same for both channels, 6.6 meters (22 feet). The left channel is 356 meters long, with a 1.9% slope of 19 m/km (98 ft/mile) and a streamflow of 7 to 22 m³/s (247 to 777 ft³/s). The right channel is 460 meters long, with a 1.4% slope of 14 m/km (76 ft/mile) and a streamflow of 7 to 12 m³/s (247 to 424 ft³/s). When both channels are watered, the left channel streamflow is 15 m³/s (530 ft³/s) and the right is 7 m³/s (247 ft³/s).
  The two channels are connected at two crossover points, making a total of five alternative routes from start to finish. From a start in the left channel, there are three ways to run the course; from a right channel start there are two. Any run which ends up in the left channel includes a sheer final drop called "Niagara."
  A conveyor-belt boat lift carries paddlers in their boats up to a 225-meter-long return canal on a level with the start pool.
  The Čunovo Water Sports Centre was built in 1996 on an island near the mid-river end of the Čunovo dam, a flood control feature of the Čunovo to Gabčíkovo dam system. The island is high enough to remain dry during floods. In March 2002 and again the same August, the whitewater course was inundated, but the buildings and most of the island remained above water.
  When the Water Sports Centre operates at full capacity, with the two whitewater channels carrying a combined total of 22 m³/s (777 ft³/s), it siphons off between 9% and 4.5% of the river's normal flow of 250 to 600 m³/s (8,830 to 21,200 ft³/s).
  Full course operation represents a 4 megawatt sacrifice of electricity production at the Gabčíkovo dam 30 km farther downstream. Although the water flowing through the slalom course represents only 1.4 megawatts of energy, if it stayed in the reservoir until it reached the Gabčíkovo dam, with a higher vertical drop, its energy potential would be greater.  This fact makes the course more expensive to operate, in energy terms, than a similar pump-powered facility.
caption: Niagara, the last drop of the left channel, is often the location of gate #20 in international canoe slalom competition.
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