Hungary picked up 11 gold medals in a dominant display of canoe and kayak racing at the ICF Sprint World Championships in Auronzo on Saturday.

Agnes Kiss picked up a second gold medal for the week, as the Hungarians won more than half the gold medals on offer during a busy day of finals action in Italy.

Germany was the next best performer, picking up three gold medals. Tobias Hammer, who won K2 gold on Friday, won the men’s U23 K1 1000 by just 0.04 seconds from Denmark’s Thorbjorn Rask.

“It feels amazing to win here, after the K2 yesterday, the K1 today, it’s such an amazing feeling,” Hammer said.

“It’s really really hard to race here, all the practice for this race, all those weeks, it’s over and I’ve won. The whole pressure comes off an it feels amazing. I didn’t expect to win two gold medals, so it’s really nice.”

Germany’s other gold medals came from Caroline Heuser in the women’s junior K1 1000, and Finja Hermanussen and Julius Geisen in the K2 junior mixed 500.

24 hours after winning gold in the junior C2 500, Agnes Kiss was once again on the top podium after victory in the women’s junior C1 500. Last year Kiss finished second in the same race.

Peter Samu and Zalan Hidvegi began the Hungarian gold rush with a win in the men’s K2 junior 500. The pair were part of the victorious Hungarian K4 crew from Friday, and both athletes also won gold last year - Samu in the K2 500, and Hidvegi in the K4.

“It was really hard, one of the hardest races of my life for sure, so it feels really nice to have done a brilliant race,” Hidvegi said.

“This is the feeling we wanted in the end. We messed up the start, it was one of our worst starts ever, but we got that result. We felt good after winning gold yesterday, and we both have gold medals from last year, so it’s a nice collection.”

Reka Opavszky won gold in the women’s C1 U23 500, Zsoka Csikos, a two-time junior marathon champion, won the women’s U23 K1 1000, and Balint Kollek won the men’s junior K1 1000.

Istvan Juhasz won the men’s junior C2 500 crown in 2022, and on Saturday successfully defended his title alongside Gergely Lugosi. Reka Kisko and Janka Kiss won the women’s K2 U23 500, Bence Vajda and Tamas Szabo the U23 K2 men’s 500, and Krisztian Szarka and Csepke Molnar the C2 junior mixed gold. It was Molnar’s second gold for the week.

Hungary also picked up two gold medals in team boats, crossing the line first in the women’s C4 junior 500 and the men’s U23 C4 500. Canada won the women’s junior C4 500, and China the women’s U23 C4 500.

After finishing a close second in the women’s junior K1 200 on Friday, Krista Berzina went one place better on Saturday when she teamed up with Malaniya Camane to win gold for Latvia in the women’s junior K2 500.

Spain won gold in the men’s U23 C2 500, through Joan Moreno and Diego Dominguez.

Full results from the 2023 ICF Junior and U23 Canoe Sprint World Championships can be found here.

Pics by Bence Vekassy