German canoeist Sebastian Brendel continued his winning streak at the biggest canoeing competitions on Saturday, winning the C1 1000 title at the 2017 Sprint Canoe European Championships in Plovdiv, Bulgaria.
The reigning Olympic and World Champion in the 1000 metre event won the race with almost two seconds advantage ahead of Martin Fuksa (CZE) and 3.5 seconds ahead of Russian canoeist Kirill Shamshurin.
“It feels good," Brendel said.
"I am back on course, I feel very good after some ups and downs in the world cup this season. It feels great to be back and I look forward to the world championships."
In the K1W 1000 metres final Dora Bodonyi from Hungary crossed the finish line ahead of Beata Mikolajczyk from Poland and Rachel Cawthorn from Great Britain.
There were no surprises in the men’s 1000 metres event with the same three athletes filling the same medals they did last year at the European Championships in Moscow.
Portugal's Fernando Pimenta won his fourth European title, and his second in the K1M 1000 metres event. Rene Poulsen from Denmark, still reigning world champion at this distance, finished second, and Hungary's Balint Kopasz third.
“When you work hard it seems easy, but it is not," Pimenta said.
"The level of competition here in canoe sprint is very high. It is very good to give a good show to the people.
It was a crazy race, because you have different conditions in the 1000 metres event. In the first 200 metres we had a wind in the back, and in the last 300 metres wind from the front. It is a hard race.”
Hungary's Reka Hagymasi and Ramona Farkasdi, Poland's Karolina Markiewicz and Julia Lis, and Germany's Tabea Medert – Melanie Gebhart won gold, silver and bronze in the women’s K2 1000 metres race.
Hungarian paddlers were once again the fastest in women’s K4 500 metres final, but the crew representing this country changed completely since last year’s European Championships in Moscow.
Dora Lucz, Tamara Takacs, Erika Medveczky and Ninetta Vad succeeded their compatriots on the throne as Europe’s best K4 boat in the 500 metres event.
“We had a very good start. At the end we had some problems but we are very happy with the result,” Lucz said.
Polish paddlers Dominika Wlodarczyk, Beata Mikolajczyk, Anna Pulawska and Katarzyna Kolodziejczyk were second in women’s K4 event, while the bronze medal went to the Ukrainian crew of Mariia Kichasova, Anastasiia Todorova, Mariya Povkh and Inna Hryshschun.
Virag Balla and Kincso Takacs (HUN), who were third last year in Russia, won the European Champion title in the C2W 500 metres final. Alena Nazdrova – Kamila Bobr of Belarus were second, and Irina Andreeva and Olesia Romasenko of Russia third.
In the men’s C2 1000 metres finals German paddlers Yul Oeltze and Peter Kretschner won the race in front of Viktor Melantyev and Vladislav Chebotar of Russia, and Italy's Nicolae Craciun and Sergiu Craciun.
Germany's Max Hoff and Marcus Gross were unbeatable, like at last year’s European Championships, in men’s K2 1000 metres final. Serbia's Marko Tomičević and Milenko Zorić, who won bronze last year, advanced one position this time to celebrate silver, and Spain's Francisco Cubelos and Inigo Pena finished third.
Bence Nadas, Peter Molnar, Sandor Totka and Milan Mozgi won another gold medal for Hungary in the men’s K4 500 metres final. Denis Mysak, Juraj Tarr, Erik Vlcek and Tibor Linka from Slovakia celebrated silver and the Belarusian crew of Raman Piatrushenka, Mikita Borykau, Dzimitry Tratsiakou, and Vitaliy Bialko finished in the third position.
Polish C4 Wiktor Glazunow, Piotr Kuleta, Tomasz Barniak and Marcin Grzybowski celebrated the European champions title in the men’s 1000 metres final ahead of Germany's Conrad Scheibner, Sebastian Brendel, Stefan Kiraj and Jan Vandrey, with Russia's Kirill Shiamshurin, Ilya Shtokalov, Rasul Ishmukhamedov and Ilya Pervukhin third.
On Sunday the 2017 ECA Canoe Sprint European Championships will conclude with 500 and 200 metres finals.
