ECA Press Release: After exciting three days of competition the 2016 ECA European Canoe Sprint and Paracanoeing Championships in Moscow has concluded. Seventeen sets of medals have been awarded today. The host nation had another successful day winning eight medals, three of which were gold. Germany and Belarus followed with seven medals and Hungary with six.
Danuta Kozak (HUN) had a successful day at the Krylatskoye Olympic racing course. She won the first final event of the day – women’s K1 500m and later added another gold medal in K2W 500m. Franziska Weber (GER) and Emma Jorgensen (DEN) joined her on the podium in K1.
Kozak and her colleague Gabriella Szabo (HUN) were very fast in K2 500m stopping the clock more than a second faster than German duo Sabrina Hering – Steffi Kriegerstein. Nadzeya Liapeshka and Maryna Litvinchuk (BLR) were third.
2015 World Champion Martin Fuksa (CZE) celebrated European Champion title in men’s C1 500m finishing ahead of Russian Mikhail Petrov by 2.028 seconds and Moldavian Oleg Tarnovschi by 2.312 seconds.
“I wanted to win and become champion for the fourth time in a row. I did not expect it to be that easy, so at the end I even had a chance to spare some power for 200 metres. I feel strong for the Olympics thanks to the medals but I hope to be even stronger at the Olympics,” said Fuksa.
Tom Liebscher of Germany produced the best time to pick up gold medal in men’s K1 500m. Rene Holten Poulsen (DEN) was second and Bence Nadas (HUN) third.
Denys Mysak, Juraj Tarr, Erik Vlcek and Tibor Linka of Slovakia won the gold medal in men’s K4 1000m final. Russians Kirill Lyapunov, Roman Anoshkin, Vasily Pogreban and Oleg Zhestkov were second, while Polish crew Martin Brzezinski, Rafal Rosolski, Bartosz Stabno, Norbert Kuczyinski was third.
Slovakian paddlers listened to their national anthem also in K2M 500m where Martin Jankovec and Gabor Jakubik crossed the finish line in first place, followed by Gabriel Campo and Riben Millan (ESP) and Vitaliy Bialko – Raman Poatrushenka (BLR).
Russia picked up a gold medal in C2M 500m thanks to Viktor Melantyev and Ivan Shtyl who were more than half a second ahead of everyone else. Romanian double Chirlia Iosif – Victor Mihalachi was second and Ukrainians Vitaliy Verheles – Denys Kamerylov were third.
The winner of women’s K1 200m final Lasma Liepa of Turkey seemed genuinely surprised after crossing the finish line in a first place, “I didn't see where I was at the finish line. I was not expecting this. It was a very big surprise for me. This was my first final A in senior category ever. I was just thinking to do my best, which was my goal today. I said to myself just do it like you do in the training, don't think about the other girls what are they doing, who they are, just do your stuff like in training and it will be good. Look what happened! This result will be a big motivation for me [before the Olympics], but also a pressure, because now everyone will expect something special.” Jess Walker (GBR) and Ivana Kmetova (SVK) joined Lasma Liepa on the podium.
Andrey Kraitor (RUS), Henrikas Zustautas (LTU) and Artsem Kozyr (BLR) were the medallists in men’s C1 200m and Olesia Romasenko (RUS), Staniliya Stamenova (BUL) and Paula Postaru (ROU) in women’s C1 200m final.
Once again we saw a tied score so Aleksejs Runjacevs (LAT) and Ignas Navakauskas (LTU) both received a bronze medal in men’s K1 200m final. It was Liam Heath (GBR) who was the fastest and Petter Menning (SWE) picked up silver medal in this event.
Franziska Weber and Tina Dietze won the K2W 200m in 37.548 finishing ahead of Russia’s Elena Terekhova and Anastasia Nevskaya by 0.748 seconds and Narharyta Makhneva – Maryna Litvinchuk (BLR) by 0.900 seconds.
Hleb Saladukha and Aliaksandr Vauchetski (BLR) were the best in men’s C2 200m, followed by Stefan Kiraj and Stefan Holz of Germany and Russians Alexander Kovalenko and Andrey Kraitor.
Nebojša Grujić and Marko Novaković improved the results from last year’s European Championships when they were second. This time they were first in a very tight final as Bence Horvath and Mate Szomolanyi (HUN) were only 0.048 seconds slower than Serbians and Ronald Rauhe – Tom Liebscher (GER), the defending champions in this event, came third.
The championships closed with 5000m finals. Maryna Litvinchuk (BLR), Dora Bodonyi (HUN) and Yuliana Salakhova (RUS) won medals in women’s K1 event; Tamas Kiss (HUN), Ronald Verch (GER) and Mateusz Kaminski (POL) were the fastest in men’s C1, while in men’s K1 medals were won by Fernando Pimenta (POR), Rene Holten Poulsen (DEN) and Aleh Yurenia (BLR).
