On day two of the 2022 ICF Junior and U23 Canoe Slalom World Championships in Ivrea, Italy, the world's best U23 canoe slalom paddlers took the stage and fought for the semi-final places. Davide Ghisetti, Eliska Mintalova, Kacper Sztuba and Gabriela Satkova were the fastest in their respective heats.
Davide Ghisetti, the local from Ivrea Canoe Club, took advantage of the home course and finished the men's kayak U23 heats in the top position. 22-year-old was 0.87 seconds faster than Gabriel De Coster from Belgium and more than two and a half seconds faster than French kayaker Simon Hene.
After the winning run Davide said:
It is amazing. I did not expect it. Because it was qualification I only wanted to go smoothly and to stay with the flow to qualify for the semi-final. At the end of the race I saw the time and it was really good."
For me, competing at home it's harder. I feel more pressure. The better part is you have crowd on your side, but at the same time there is more pressure because it is your home course, where you want to have a good result."
The reigning senior European Champion Eliska Mintalova from Slovakia was nervous on the start line as she wore the bib number one and was the last one to start in women's U23 kayak heats. However, while she navigated through the course almost everything went smoothly and she produced a penalty free and a fast run which brought her the win in the heats. Laia Sorribes from Spain was second in the heats and representative of Andorra Monia Doria Vilarrubla was third.
My run was good, but I had a mistake in the last upstream gate. I am tired but it was good for today," said Mintalova.
Polish canoeist Kacper Sztuba was the best in men's C1 U23 heats, finishing the race a second and a half ahead of German Lennard Tuchscherer, while Kurts Rozentals from Great Britain finished third in the heats.
Today I had a lot of fun on the water. The course it is not that hard, so I could push in every moment. I did a good job on the course and it was enough to win today. I hope I will do the same job in the semi-final," Sztuba said after winning performance.
The 2020 senior canoe slalom C1 champion Gabriela Satkova from Czech Republic set the best time in women's C1 U23 heats. The defending champion Bethan Forrow from Great Britain was second and Ainhoa Lameiro from Spain third.
Satkova was satisfied after the first stage of the championships was concluded successfully:
It was really good. I did not do any major mistakes. It was quite fast and clean. I did not mean to push so hard, but at the end I knew it was such a good run and wanted to know what time I can do. I just pushed hard and it was really good."
On Thursday, the championships continues with junior heats in men's and women's kayak and canoe events.
