Canada’s Katie Vincent picked up two final-day gold medals to add to a silver and bronze and to bring her event total to four on the final day of the ICF’s Canoe Sprint World Cup in Szeged on Sunday.

Vincent showed her strength with a powerful final 250 metres to win the women’s C1 500, and then dominated a small but classy C1 5000 field to take gold in cold and blustery conditions in the afternoon.

There were also golds in non-Olympic events for Hungary, Kazakhstan, Australia, Spain and Denmark.

Vincent said she felt stronger this week than at anytime since the Tokyo Olympics.

“I like to play my cards on a Sunday, and today was a great day with two gold medals so I’m happy with that,” she said.

“I’m feeling pretty positive and confident, but there’s still some things we need to work on, as there always is, but I think we are building towards a stronger and better result later in the year, and this is a really positive stepping stone on our way.”

Kazakhstan’s Sergey Yemelyanov and Rufina Iskakova took gold in the mixed C2 500, while the reigning world champion combination of Alyssa Bull and Jackson Collins won the mixed K2 500, edging out Australian teammates Riley Fitzsimmons and Yale Steinepreis.

“K2 mixed events are the most fun events I have ever done, so it felt really good to get out there and be competitive, and have a one-two finish as well,” Collins said.

“We just had to trust that we had a strong back end and that we could push through.”

In other 5000 metre races, Hungary’s Balazs Adolf won a convincing men’s C1 final, Spain’s Estefania Fernandez led from start to finish to beat a very strong women’s K1 race, and Denmark’s Mads Pedersen survived early race dramas which forced a number of retirements to claim another K1 gold medal.

Sunday’s 5000 metre races included five portages, adding an extra challenge for all the athletes.

“It was nice for me to take the win, it was a difficult race with these five portages so to stay out of the trouble and just power on and take the win, it was a really nice end to this weekend,” Pedersen said.

“I really wanted to go out hard because it’s super important to be in front at the first portage, because if you are behind 20 people, you have a big problem.”

The second ICF Canoe Sprint World Cup begins in Poznan, Poland, in 10 days.

Pics by Bence Vekassy