The British team topped the medals table at last year’s Championships in Serbia’s capital Belgrade, where they earned four gold, three silver and one bronze.

Emma Wiggs clinched double gold in the VL2 and KL2 women 200 metres events, while David Phillipson and Jeanette Chippington topped the standings in the men’s VL3 200m and women’s KL1 200m respectively.

The trio headline the British team in Poznan, with Charlotte Henshaw, Nicolas Beighton and Ian Marsden also due to compete.

Italy’s Esteban Farias and Marius Ciustea are also among the defending champions set to compete, along with Austria’s Markus Swoboda and Ukraine’s Serhii Yemelianov.

World and European champion Helene Ripa from Sweden is among the major absentees from the Championships.

Hosts Poland will look to Jakub Tokarz, Kamila Kubas and Katarzyna Sobczak as their main hopes.

Around 100 boats from 16 countries have entered the European Canoe Association event, including athletes from Armenia, Austria, Belarus, France, Germany and Britain.

Hungary, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Serbia, Spain and Ukraine will also have representatives.

Tomorrow will see medals earned in the women’s VL2+VL1 and VL3 events and men’s KL1, KL2 and KL3 competitions.

The closing day will see titles claimed in the women’s KL1, KL2 and KL3 events and men’s VL1, VL2 and VL3 races.

The Championships is ordinarily part of the Canoe Sprint European Championships but is being organised separately this year.

It comes as the Canoe Sprint European Championships will form part of upcoming European Games in Minsk.

The Polish Canoe Federation decided to organise the Paracanoe European Championships prior to the Canoe Sprint and Paracanoe World Cup, which is due to begin on Thursday (May 23).