By Nina Jelenc

The Hungarian canoe sprint team celebrated three gold medals in Saturday's canoe sprint finals thanks to Balint Kopasz, Alida Dora Gazso and Danuta Kozak - Dora Bodonyi, and added a paracanoe gold thanks to youngster Peter Pal Kiss.
 
Balint Kopasz managed to make it a double European champion title in two consecutive days. On Friday, he won the 500 metres event, and on Saturday he added to the European title in the Olympic 1000-metres event.

As expected it all came down to Kopasz and Fernando Pimenta from Portugal in the strong 1000m final. The Portuguese, who has three European champion titles in this distance in his pocket, picked up silver medal this time, while Belgium's Artuur Peters finished third.  
 
Another strong final was the women's K2 500, with Hungary's Danuta Kozak and Dora Bodonyi taking the gold. The Hungarian duo was 1.245 seconds faster than Polish hopes Karolina Naja and Anna Pulawska, while defending European champions and reigning world champions Volha Khudzenka and Maryna Litvinchuk from Belarus crossing the finish line in third place.
 
Alida Dora Gazso was the one who opened the successful day for Hungarian team, becoming European champion in the women's 1000 metres final. Anamaria Govorcinovic from Croatia was second and Mariana Petrusova from Slovakia third.
 
Czech canoeist Martin Fuksa won his second C1 1000 metres European champion title of his career, and his fifth European championships gold medal so far.

"I felt great after this race. I was happy and also relieved that I can be still pretty fast," he said.

"I hope that I can prove this for some more years. I was so nervous before this race. I really wanted to win a medal - the most precious if possible. When Conrad started fast, I tried to keep my pace and concentrate on myself."

Conrad-Robin Scheibner from Germany was second and Kirill Shamshurin from Russia third.
 
Denmark celebrated gold medal thanks to Emma Aastrand Jorgensen who was half a second faster than second placed Dora Lucz from Hungary in the women's K1 200, while local favourite Marta Walczykiewicz won bronze medal.
 
Joan Antoni Moreno from Spain is the new European Champion in men's C1 200 metres event, where Artsem Kozyr from Belarus finished second and Henrikas Zustautas from Lithuania third.
 
The prestige title in men's K4 500 metres final went to Germany with Max Rendschmidt, Tom Liebscher, Ronald Rauhe and Max Lemke. Slovakia won silver medal and Russia finished third in this event.
 
Liudmyla Luzan and Anastasiia Chetverikova from Ukraine produced the fastest run in women's C2 500 metres final. Lisa Jahn and Sophie Ulrike Koch from Germany were second and Virag Balla - Kincso Takacs from Hungary third.
 
The Italian anthem played in honour of Manfredi Rizza and Andrea Domenico Di Liberto, who were unbeatable in men's K2 200 metres final. Arturas Seja and Ignas Navakauskas (LTU) were second and Iurii Postrigai - Alexander Dyachenko (RUS) picked up bronze medal.
 
Ukraine was the most successful in afternoon's paracanoe finals of the European Championships. Serhii Yemelianov, reigning Paralympic and World Champion, managed to defend his KL3 200 metres European Champion title from 2019 and European Championships which was also held here in Poznan. Russians Leonid Krylov and Artem Voronkov joined him on the winner's podium.
 
Mykola Syniuk also defended his European Champion title from 2019 in men's KL2 200 metres event. Austrian Markus Mendy Swoboda was second and Federico Mancarella from Italy third.
 
Maryna Mazhula won third Ukrainian paracanoe gold medal of the day in women's KL1 final. Eleonora de Paolis (ITA) won silver medal and Edina Mueller (GER) received bronze medal for her final performance.
 
Mueller's teammates were successful in women's KL3 and KL2 finals. Felicia Laberer celebrated European Champion title in KL3 ahead of Nelia Barbosa (FRA) and Katarzyna Kozikowska (POL), while Anja Adler won gold medal in KL2 final ahead of Katalin Varga (HUN) and Nataliia Lahutenko (UKR).
 
Young Hungarian parakayaker Peter Pal Kiss was the winner of the last final of the day - men's KL1 200 metres race. Esteban Farias from Italy was second and Robert Suba from Hungary third.