The second day of the 2016 ECA Junior and U23 Canoe Slalom European Championships in Solkan has ended and we have the first medallists of this weekend. After the heats in women’s kayak and men’s C2 events it was time for the six team events. Women’s and men’s canoe as well as men’s kayak team events both in Junior and U23 categories have been held and in today’s events six different countries won the gold medal.
In the first team event of the day – women’s C1 U23 – it appeared at first that Spain won the gold medal but later it was Great Britain with Kimberley Woods, Jasmine Royle and Eilidh Gibson who reached the top position. In a very tight race Miren Lazkano, Annebel van der Knijff and Klara Olazabal of Spain finished second just 0.33 seconds behind, while Czech paddlers Jana Matulkova, Gabriela Satkova and Alexandra Vrbova picked up the bronze medal.
French canoeists Cedric Joly, Thibault Blaise and Erwan Marchais became U23 European Champions ahead of Russia (Kirill Setkin, Nikolay Shkliaruk and Alexander Nepogodin) and Germany (Florian Breuer, Dennis Soeter, Gregor Kreul).
Home crowd celebrated European Champion title in men’s kayak U23 race where Simon Brus, Martin Srabotnik and Žan Jakše produced the best time and won the gold medal despite two penalty seconds. Slovenia stopped the clock at 104.43, Italy with Zeno Ivaldi, Marcello Beda and Marco Vianello finished second, 1.63 seconds behind, and Russia (Maxim Shabanov, Nikita Gubenko and Alexander Nepogodin) was third.
Slovakian anthem played in honour of their women’s canoe junior team where Sona Stanovska, Simona Glejtekova and Simona Macekova won the only medal of the day for Slovakia. Czech Republic (Martina Satkova, Tereza Fišerova and Eva Rihova) was second and France (Marjorie Delassus, Fanchon Janssen and Azenor Philip) was third.
Italian team – Carlo Bullo, Gabriele Ciulla and Mandi Mandia – was the fastest on the Soča River in men’s C1 junior event. Young Italians produced a penalty free run which ensured them a gold medal. Czech paddlers Vaclav Chaloupka, Matyas Lhota and Matous Prihoda picked up four penalty seconds on their way, but were at the end only 0.40 seconds behind the top position. Slovenia won bronze medal thanks to Tine Kancler, Urh Turnšek and Jakob Jeklin.
In the junior kayak event German paddlers Thomas Strauss, Noah Hegge and Lukas Stahl won the gold medal. Spain with Nil Garcia, Manuel Ochoa and Eneko Auzmendi picked up silver and Italy (Jakob Weger, Valentin Luther and Martin Unterthurner) bronze medal.
In the morning heats Russian U23 C2 Shkliaruk – Mikhailov produced the best run, in junior C2 it was also Russians Kotov – Komkov who were the fastest. Karolina Galuškova won the women’s U23 K1 heats, while Klaudia Zwolinska of Poland produced the best run in junior K1W event.
On Saturday semi-finals and finals in women’s C1 (junior and U23), men’s C1 (junior and U23) and men’s K1 (junior and U23) will follow as well as team events in women’s kayak and men’s C2 categories.
Results and live streaming: http://siwihome.azurewebsites.net/canoe123/eca?SessionKey=siwidata.1045
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